Federal immigration officials have been instructed to stop pulling over vehicles until further notice, according to a homeland security source, following two recent deadly shootings in Texas and Maine during which officials shot and killed immigrants in vehicles.
Widespread suspension of vehicle stops
Other news outlets, including Fox News and CNN, confirmed that officials nationwide received the instructions, with the former reporting some vehicle stops would be allowed to target “the most egregious criminal aliens”. The homeland security source told the Guardian the email did not include much explanation as to why immigration officials were told to stop pulling vehicles over, but the high-profile shootings in the past week have renewed calls for accountability for immigration enforcement related deaths, amid the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigrant arrests and deportations.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in an email to the Guardian: “We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets. We will not disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics.”
Details of the shootings
On Monday morning, 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero, who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official in Maine. Guerrero was killed less than a week after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot by an ICE officer in Houston, Texas, while he was on his way to work. Both cases led to public outcry, with communities, lawmakers and civil liberties groups calling for independent investigations into the shootings. In both cases, the officials were not wearing body cameras.
Fox News reported on Tuesday that the suspension of vehicle stops would be temporary until ICE officers receive “new training” on vehicle stops. Last week, following Salgado’s shooting, ICE told the Guardian in a statement the agency had already instituted “additional training” for new ICE officers, including for “high-risk vehicle stops”. That new training began in July, with ICE officers who were already working on enforcement operations follow-up training.
Broader pattern of deadly incidents
Federal immigration officials, including officers with ICE and Customs and Border Protection, have shot and killed 11 people since January 2025. Five people fatally shot by ICE officials, including Guerrero, Salgado and three others, were all in their vehicles. In most of the cases, DHS claimed that people “weaponized” their vehicles against federal law enforcement officers, leading the officials to shoot. Claims by DHS officials were later disputed after footage of the separate incidents cast doubt on the department’s claims. One of the highest-profile cases was the killing of Renee Good, a US citizen in Minneapolis, who was shot and killed by an ICE officer in January.
