US president backs tactic despite agency announcing temporary pause after fatal shootings in Texas and Maine.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump praised Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers for doing a “GREAT job” and argued that traffic stops remain one of the agency’s most effective tools as it carries out his mass deportation campaign.
“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. “Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”
He also urged officers to be “judicious, fair and smart” as they “go back and do your very important job”.
The comments came a day after Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said ICE was temporarily suspending most traffic stops while it reviewed the practice after two deadly shootings within a week.
“It’s not a policy change. It’s a temporary pause,” Homan told Fox News on Tuesday. “This is going to be a short-term review to make sure ICE agents are safe and doing the right thing.”
Homan said officers would continue making arrests using other tactics while the review was under way.
The review was prompted by the fatal shooting on Monday of 25-year-old Colombian national Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero during an ICE operation in Biddeford, Maine.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, initially told Maine Senator Angus King an officer fired after Duran Guerrero tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. Later, the department publicly said only that Duran Guerrero had tried to flee and an officer, “fearing for public safety”, opened fire.
