Trump says ICE won't halt traffic stops after recent fatal shootings

FILE PHOTO: President Donald J. Trump boards Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida on Monday, March 23, 2026, en route Memphis, Tennessee. (White House photo by Molly Riley)

WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said federal immigration agents won't end vehicle stops, one day after officials announced a temporary pause in such stops after agents fatally shot two men in Texas and Maine.

"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!" Trump wrote in a social media post. 

On Tuesday, Trump administration officials said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency had ordered its officers to suspend most vehicle stops around the country after two men were shot and killed by ICE agents during such stops six days apart. 

An ICE agent on Monday killed a driver from Colombia in the coastal Maine town of Biddeford, about 15 miles (24 km) south of Portland. An ICE officer in Houston on July 7 fatally shot a Mexican national while trying to stop his vehicle.   

"It's not a policy change, it's a temporary pause," Trump's border czar Tom Homan told Fox News Channel in an interview on Tuesday referring to the vehicle stop suspension. 

"This is going to be a short-term review to make sure ICE agents are safe and doing the right thing," Homan told the television network, adding that officers will use other options to make arrests.

The back-to-back shootings sparked protests in Maine, Houston and Boston and raised questions over ICE agents' lack of body cameras.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has characterized both men as "illegal aliens" but acknowledged neither was the intended target of deportation operations that led to their deaths.