ICE halts most vehicle stops following deadly shootings, sources say

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been instructed to immediately suspend most vehicle stops during enforcement operations nationwide, except in cases involving serious criminal targets, following fatal shootings in Texas and Maine over the last week, multiple law enforcement sources told CBS News.

The change is temporary and will remain in place while ICE provides additional training to officers on vehicle-stop tactics, the sources said.

The policy shift could have significant operational impacts. Vehicle stops have been a common tactic in ICE enforcement operations under the Trump administration, allowing officers to identify, follow and arrest targeted individuals away from homes or workplaces.

In the most recent incident, Joan Sebastian Guerrero, 26, a Colombian national who was in the country illegally, had “attempted to flee the scene” Monday when ICE tried to stop him at around 7 a.m. ET in Biddeford, Maine, and “fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.

While Guerrero was not the target of an operation, ICE agents attempted to pull over the man’s car while “conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal,” DHS said.

Guerrero had previously been given an order to leave the country, independent Maine Sen. Angus King said Monday.

Just six days earlier, a similar situation unfolded in Houston.

Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was fatally shot by ICE officers who had pulled over his vehicle while looking for a different person, DHS confirmed last week.

“After receiving a credible tip from our law enforcement partners, our officers conducted surveillance on a target’s address. Weeks prior to the incident, they noted two white vans at the property,” DHS said. “On July 7, officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop.”

DHS initially said ICE officers were targeting Salgado Araujo because he was living in the country illegally. The department alleged he was shot after he ignored “multiple verbal commands” and attempted to ram an officer who fired his weapon in self-defense.

Salgado Araujo had no criminal record and was close to obtaining a work permit after living in the U.S. for more than three decades without legal status, his family has said.