Trump tells immigration agents to resume traffic stops despite killings

President Donald Trump forcefully criticized the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency on Wednesday for its decision to suspend traffic stops. The agency halted the practice after two fatal shootings involving its agents occurred within a week.

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We CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective crime-fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!

Trump took to his Truth Social network to declare that traffic stops are one of ICE's "most important and effective crime-fighting tools." He warned that suspending them would "play right into the criminal’s hands" and vowed that "it won’t happen on my watch." He urged ICE to "be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job."

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Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands. The Radical Left Democrats 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.

The Department of Homeland Security had paused the practice after a Colombian man was shot dead in Maine on Monday and a Mexican man was killed in an operation in Texas last week. Tom Homan, Trump's former ICE director and now a border czar, confirmed the "pause" but insisted the practice was effective and would resume.

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murder of a Latin American Colombian at the hands of the US government.

ICE agents have faced criticism for aggressive tactics and for the deaths of two US citizens earlier this year. Rights groups identified the Maine victim as Joan Sebastian Guerrero, 26, who lived with his wife and daughter. Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the killing a "murder of a Latin American Colombian at the hands of the US government." A coalition called "No Kings" stated the killings were a "horrific hallmark of continued authoritarian overreach by the Trump administration."

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horrific hallmark of continued authoritarian overreach by the Trump administration.