Trump administration orders ICE to halt traffic stops after Maine shooting, US media reports

Trump administration officials have told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to suspend most vehicle stops after two deadly shootings in little over a week, a person familiar with the matter confirmed Tuesday.

The order came a day after an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian driver in Maine and a week after one shot and killed a motorist in Houston, renewing criticism of the agency’s tactics during enforcement operations.

Read moreOne person killed in Maine shooting involving ICE, state lawmaker says

The suspension is not absolute and there’s room for exceptions when executing a criminal warrant or working with partner agencies, according to a person who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement operations.

Hundreds of people protested in Maine on Tuesday over the killing Monday of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national, by an ICE officer.

The Department of Homeland Security said the officer, “fearing for public safety”, shot and killed Durán Guerrero while officers were watching the home of someone they believed was in the US illegally and had a final order of removal from the country. It said in a post on X that when ICE tried to stop a car driven by someone coming from the home, the vehicle attempted to flee and the officer fired his weapon.

That was a change from how Maine Sen. Angus King described the encounter hours earlier, when he said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. King said Mullin told him the officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant but not for the man who was shot.

In a scathing post on X, outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the shooting a targeted killing “at the hands of the U.S. government.”

Petro, who has openly quarreled with US President Donald Trump, urged Trump to provide an explanation and accused ICE officers of treating Durán Guerrero as “an inferior being without rights”.

The shooting has sparked outrage in Biddeford and the wider area. Protesters gathered Tuesday outside of an ICE detention centre in Scarborough, which is just up the coast between Biddeford and Portland.

“These people are killers and they must leave our state now,” organizer Todd Chretien told the gathering, including some who held signs reading "Stop the murder” and “End this terror”.

Durán Guerrero's shooting marked the second time in a week that ICE used deadly force and at least the ninth death since Trump began his immigration crackdown.

The officers involved in shooting in Biddeford, which is just southwest of Portland, didn’t have body cameras, leaving many questions about what transpired. Among them are how close the officer was to the vehicle when they fired, whether officers told Durán Guerrero to stop, and how ICE believes he had put the public in danger.

“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,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement.

Maine’s other senator, Republican Susan Collins, said Mullin told her that DHS’ Office of Inspector General is investigating in cooperation with the FBI.

Photos showed bullet holes in the car’s windshield.

The Maine attorney general’s office, which said it's working cooperatively with federal agencies to investigate, said initial statements suggest the driver was trying to flee in the direction of the officer, whose name hasn't been released and who was placed on leave.

Video from a nearby business' security camera obtained by the AP shows a white car slowly approaching an intersection before making several circles. A law enforcement SUV blocked its path and two officers opened the driver’s door and dragged out a limp body.

It isn't clear from the video when the shots were fired.

Daniel Boucher, who lives nearby, said he heard a “pop, pop, pop” and ran to the intersection.

“His face was bloody. His head was bloody,” Boucher said. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop.’”

At one point, Boucher said, the officer who shot Durán Guerrero walked close to him.

“He looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something to that effect,” Boucher said. “I don’t remember his exact words.”

Two advocacy groups – the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! – said Durán Guerrero was authorized to work in the US.

Neighbours say Durán Guerrero was a friendly and familiar face even though they rarely chatted because he didn’t appear to speak English.

Sadie Dilboy and Cory Poulin, who own a laundromat near the intersection where the car came to a stop, said they saw Durán Guerrero all the time.

“Everyone knows him,” said Dilboy, who remembered that he often came to their store with his daughter and gave her quarters to buy candy.

Claudia Morton, who lives near Durán Guerrero and his family and often waved to him, was distraught over the shooting. “The whole world should be crying,” she said Tuesday.

Last week in Houston, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo after federal authorities driving unmarked vehicles pursued him while he was driving to a construction job site.

The two shootings come amid a Trump administration push to carry out its mass deportations agenda. Over five days at the end of June, ICE arrested more than 10,000 people.

The figures indicate that while the administration is no longer cracking down on individual cities, arrests are surging. The administration’s enforcement efforts were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)