ICE suspends traffic stops across US after two fatal shootings
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has temporarily halted traffic stops nationwide after agents fatally shot two men in Texas and Maine within six days.
ICE suspends traffic stops across US after two fatal shootings
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has temporarily suspended traffic stops across the country after its agents fatally shot two men within six days during routine vehicle stops in Texas and Maine, reports 24sata.hr (https://www.24sata.hr/news/nakon-dva-smrtonosna-incidenta-ice-obustavio-prometne-kontrole-diljem-sad-a-1141361).
ICE director Tom Homan called the move a "temporary pause" in arrest tactics. The suspension took effect a day after an agent killed a Colombian driver in the coastal town of Biddeford, Maine, about 24 km south of Portland. A week earlier, an ICE officer fatally shot Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in the predominantly Hispanic East End neighbourhood of Houston.
Although the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) characterised both men as "illegal aliens", officials admitted neither was the target of the deportation operations that led to their deaths. No video footage of the shootings has emerged, and federal authorities have provided no evidence to support claims that either man posed a threat to agents.
Under ICE policy, officers may use lethal force only when there is an "imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death" to an officer or another person, and they are not authorised to fire solely to prevent a suspect from fleeing.
The two consecutive incidents raised the number of people killed during immigration enforcement operations to at least seven since January 2025, when the Trump administration launched its mass deportation campaign. ICE arrests in Maine more than quadrupled from June to roughly 70 per day by early July, according to internal data shared with Reuters.
The Maine shooting sparked protests on Monday and Tuesday. The Maine Attorney General's Office has opened an investigation in cooperation with local, state and federal authorities. DHS stated nearly 12 hours after the Maine incident that the agent opened fire "in fear for public safety" because the driver tried to flee, but officials did not explain how that constituted a justifiable threat.
In the Houston case, ICE said Salgado struck a police vehicle with his van and tried to run over the officer, who then fired in self-defence.
Source: 24sata