President Donald Trump has leapt to the defense of Immigration and Customs Enforcement after its agents were told to pause traffic stops after two deadly shootings just days apart.
“The men and women of ICE are doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done,” the president wrote on Truth Social early Wednesday.
“CRIME IS WAY DOWN IN AMERICA, in many cases with numbers that haven’t been seen in decades. The Open Border Policy of Sleepy Joe Biden allowed 25,000,000 people to pour into our Country, unchecked and unvetted. Many were Criminals, and we have to get them out,” the president wrote. “In order to do this, we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”
He continued: “The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch. I.C.E., be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job. Keep those Crime Stat Records coming! Remember, you are loved and respected in America.”
The president’s post came after Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin ordered the pause “effective immediately,” advising federal agents to “prioritize other existing operational methods” in an internal email seen by The Atlantic.
The order came in response to the killing of Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 28-year-old Colombian man living in Maine, and the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old father of three children in Houston.
Both men died after having their vehicles stopped by agents, becoming the 10th and 11th people to be shot dead since the Trump administration began its large-scale round-up of suspected undocumented migrants last year.
An ICE spokesperson told The Independent of the change of strategy: “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.”
Seeking to reassure the public Tuesday, White House border czar Tom Homan characterized the traffic stop decision as a “necessary short-term pause” and told reporters it was important for ICE to establish the facts about the deaths of Guerrero and Salgado Araujo and ask itself: “Is the training sufficient? Did anything go wrong?”
“I’m confident they’re going to get back to their policy of vehicle stops, but they’re doing… what they believe is a necessary short-term pause just to look at it and make sure everything’s good,” he said.
As was the case with the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this year, the version of events offered by officials has been met with a degree of skepticism that are often proven incorrect from witness video and testimony.
An ICE spokesperson said its officers “attempted to conduct a vehicle stop” on Guerrero in the coastal town of Biddeford, Maine, Monday morning when “the vehicle attempted to flee the scene,” prompting an agent “fearing for public safety” to fire his weapon.
Similarly, a DHS spokesperson said that Salgado Araujo had tried to “evade arrest” and “weaponized his vehicle” in an attempt to “run over” an ICE officer in Houston, days earlier, leaving the latter to fire “in self-defense.”
However, in neither case were the agents involved wearing body cameras, despite a directive issued by Mullin’s predecessor Kristi Noem that they should do so to record their interactions in the interest of transparency.
Witnesses who saw the Salgado Araujo confrontation, including the deceased’s brother and two co-workers, have challenged the official narrative and since alleged that immigration authorities have pressured them to sign deportation orders to ensure they leave the U.S.
In a statement to The Independent, DHS said the agency’s Office of Inspector General was leading an investigation into the fatal shooting while the FBI’s Houston office is leading a probe “into the potential assault on a federal law enforcement officer.”
Agents have shot at least 20 people within the last year and nearly all of them were in their cars.
