White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will continue conducting vehicle stops nationwide.
The statement followed earlier reports that the Department of Homeland Security planned to pause such stops after several recent deadly encounters involving ICE agents. The office of Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) had confirmed to NPR that DHS intended to change policy, but within hours President Trump posted on Truth Social that the practice must remain in place: “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.”
At the White House briefing, Leavitt said, “Vehicle stops are continuing. Verbal guidance has been given to all field offices across the country by the Department of Homeland Security.” She added that the president and the DHS secretary are “on the same page” that vehicle stops are a necessary tool for removing what she described as the “worst of the worst” criminal aliens.
NPR sought clarification from DHS, which referred questions to the White House.
The renewed emphasis on vehicle stops comes after multiple recent incidents in which people died during or after ICE traffic encounters. In Houston, DHS says agents shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo after attempting to pull his van over and after an agent perceived the van was being used as a weapon; passengers in the vehicle have disputed that account. In Maine, ICE agents tried to stop the car of Joan Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national, and an agent fatally shot him; DHS said the vehicle tried to flee and an officer fired, but the agency has not produced evidence supporting that version. And in St. Augustine, Florida, the Florida Highway Patrol reported a man was fatally struck by a tractor-trailer while running from an ICE vehicle stop.
Officials have said DHS provided verbal instructions to field offices to continue traffic stops. Investigations into the shootings and the Florida death are ongoing, and some details remain disputed by witnesses and outside reporting.