Trump’s bossation officials have told US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to conduct more traffic stops after two fatal shootings in less than a week, people familiar with the decision said.on Tuesday.
The order came a day after an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian driver in Maine and a week after he shot and killed a motorist in Houston, renewing criticism of the agency’s tactics during law enforcement.
Suspensions are not absolute and there are exceptions when a felony warrant is issued or to work with related agencies, according to a person who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive law enforcement matter.etc. Matthew Felling, spokesman for Maine Sen. Angus King, said the senator’s office was also told by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that ICE is stopping traffic stops.
Hundreds of people protested in Maine on Tuesday the fatal shooting of an ICE officer of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, 26 years old from Colombia.
DHS said Monday that the A police officer, “fearing for public safety,” shot and killed Durán Guerrero while officers were watching the home of a man they believed was in the US illegally and had received a final order of removal from the country..
The Department says in a document written on X that when ICE tried to stop a car driven by a person who was leaving home, the car tried to run away and the officer fired his weapon.
An ICE agent shot and killed a man in Biddeford, Maine, sparking protests across the state. The US Department of Homeland Security says the man was using his car as a weapon. It is the second time in a week that an immigration officer has killed someone in the United States.
It was change the way King deHe wrote about what happened hours ago, when he said that US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him that a police officer opened fire after the man tried to use his car as a weapon. King said Mullin told him the police were trying to get an arrest warrant, but not the man who was shot.
DHS, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to an email seeking clarification on what led to the shooting.
In a scathing message to X, outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the shooting a targeted killing “at the hands of the US government.”
Petro, who has openly clashed with US President Donald Trump, called on Trump to provide an explanation and accused ICE officials of treating Durán Guerrero as “a lowly person with no rights.”
The shooting has caused outrage among expertsinspectors gathered Tuesday outside the ICE detention center in Scarborough, which is just off the coast between Biddeford and Portland.
“These people are killers and they need to leave our state now,” organizer Todd Chretien told the crowd, which also held signs reading “Stop the killing” and “End this terrorism.”
Maine’s congressional delegation on Tuesday called for a “comprehensive, transparent and expedited investigation.”
Questions surround the shooting
The shooting of Durán Guerrero marked at least the ninth time ICE has used lethal force since Trump began his immigration crackdown campaign.
Photos showed bullet holes in the windshield of Maine’s car, but the officers involved in the incident had body cameras, leaving many questions. Among them are how close the officer was to the car when they fired, whether officers told Durán Guerrero to stop, and why ICE believes he posed a danger to the public.
“We are constantly evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals on our streets. We will not disclose or discuss law enforcement strategies,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement.
Another Maine senator, Republican Susan Collins, said Mullin told her the DHS Office of Inspector General was investigating in cooperation with the FBI.
The State Attorney General’s Office, which noted that it is cooperating with government agencies to investigate, said that preliminary statements indicate that the driver was trying to run away from the police officer, whose name has not been released and has been withheld.
The video shows the effect of the capture
According to neighbors and public records, Guerrero lived in an apartment about 46 feet from where his car came to rest outside a building across the street from a grocery store and laundromat.
Video from a nearby business’s security camera obtained by The Associated Press shows a white car slowly approaching the intersection before making several circles. A police SUV blocked the way and two police officers opened the driver’s door and dragged the limping body.
It is not clear from the video when the images were shot.
Daniel Boucher, who lives nearby, said he heard “pop, pop, pop” and ran to the intersection.
“His face was covered in blood. His head was covered in blood,” Boucher said. “I heard the victim say, ‘I tried to quit.’
At one point, Boucher said, the officer who shot Durán Guerrero walked up to him.
“He looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something like that,” Boucher said. “I don’t remember his words very well.”
Two advocacy groups – the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! – said Durán Guerrero is authorized to work in the US
Neighbors said Durán Guerrero was a friendly and familiar face even though they rarely spoke because he didn’t seem to speak English.
Sadie Dilboy and Cory Poulin, who own a laundromat near the road where the car stopped, said they saw Durán Guerrero all the time.
“Everybody knows him,” said Dilboy who remembered that he used to come to their store with his daughter and give her a place to buy candy.
Claudia Morton, who lives near Durán Guerrero and his family and often waves to him, was devastated by the shooting. “The whole world should mourn,” he said on Tuesday.
Last week in Houston, a police officer shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, after authorities chased him in unknown vehicles as he drove to a construction site.
The Trump administration’s enforcement efforts came under fire last winter after the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
