ICE has ordered agents nationwide to halt most vehicle stops after two fatal shootings in a week, surrendering a core enforcement tool because the press and politicians howled—never mind that the solution to bad shootings is accountability, not retreat.
When the federal government stops enforcing immigration law because of bad headlines, ordinary Americans pay the price. The shootings in Maine and Texas raise real questions about competence and oversight. But the answer is not to gut enforcement and call it reform.
The policy shift, first reported by the Daily Wire and confirmed by multiple outlets, instructs ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations agents to stop conducting vehicle pulls unless they're pursuing someone with a "serious or violent criminal history." Even then, agents must work with partner law enforcement agencies to make the stop. Fox News reported the pause is temporary, lasting until agents receive "new training" on vehicle stops. An ICE source vented to the Daily Wire: "Numbers are going down, we can't do s–t."
The retreat follows two killings where the people shot were not even the targets of ICE operations. On Monday in Biddeford, Maine, an ICE agent fatally shot 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a Colombian national. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin initially claimed Guerrero had "weaponized" his vehicle. By Monday afternoon, amid conflicting witness accounts and video, Mullin told Sen. Angus King that Guerrero was not the target—and ICE changed its story to say he was trying to "flee." Guerrero's partner and young child were with him. Less than a week earlier in Houston, ICE shot and killed 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on his way to a construction site. A lawyer for passengers in his van said he was shot through a passenger window and that officers were never threatened.
Neither set of agents wore body cameras. DHS blamed "back-to-back Democrat shutdowns" for the delay, telling CNN that cameras have been deployed to just over half of field offices. Congress appropriated $20 million for body cameras in April. ICE implemented a body camera policy in January 2024. Implementation has been slow—conveniently.
The Guardian noted that ICE agents have fatally shot 11 people since January 2025, five of them in vehicles. In most cases, DHS claimed the person "weaponized" their vehicle. Footage has repeatedly cast doubt on those claims. That pattern is a real problem—and one that body cameras, already funded and authorized, would solve.
Instead of fixing the accountability gap, the feds are retreating. Sen. Susan Collins, who voted to fund ICE, urged Mullin to "cease all non-urgent vehicle stops" after protesters swarmed her district office. Rep. Joaquin Castro called the shootings "cold-blooded murder." The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is holding field hearings. The pressure campaign is working—on the wrong target.
The New York Post reported that disallowing vehicle stops could force agents into home entries, where suspects are more likely to be armed, and which require search warrants signed by judges. That's more danger for agents and more friction for enforcement.
A sovereign nation that cannot or will not control its borders and remove those ordered deported is not functioning as a sovereign nation. ICE managed to kill two people who weren't even their targets, change its story after the fact, and fail to deploy cameras already paid for. The response from Washington: stop doing the job entirely until the heat dies down. That's not accountability. That's cowardice dressed up as caution.
