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A week after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) car stop made headlines, a federal special agent working on deportations revealed why traffic stops are a “very important” part of the agency’s operations.
After the second shooting of an ICE officer in a week in Maine on Monday, agents across the country were instructed to halt traffic stops until further notice. That directive, however, was overruled by President Donald Trump on Wednesday, who called traffic stops “one of ICE’s most important and effective crime-fighting tools.”
Despite the controversy, the agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said traffic stops are the preferred strategy of many officers, because they are safer for both law enforcement and the subject than a home run, and allow more time to identify a target than worry on the street.
Perhaps most notably, although the traffic stop has been widely criticized, the agent explained that he was making “collateral” arrests, which he said were the arrests of illegal immigrants who had no intention of doing the job but were “in the wrong place at the right time.”
“[Vehicle stops] leads to a high level of success in holding the target that is [ICE officers] they want and do not get a guarantee. A collateral is a person that we do not want, but meet, and they consider him to have no legal and/or illegal existence; therefore they will be legally arrested.”
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ICE agents stand guard in front of protesters outside the federal immigration center at Delaney Hall, where ICE detains immigrants on May 26, 2026, in Newark, New Jersey. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The agent said traffic stops are a “daily” part of ICE’s operations. They described the stops as an important tool in the “toolbox” of government officials working on deportations.
Simon Hankinson, senior researcher on border security and immigration at the Heritage Foundation, explained that traffic stops have become “very important” due to the increase in operational risks.
“If you have to go to someone’s house, we’ve seen how difficult that can be if they don’t want it. You need warrants, if you’re breaking down doors, there’s a lot of potential for someone to get hurt,” he said.
“What they’re trying to do is find people and get them into custody in a very calm, quiet, and safe manner,” Hankinson continued. “So, the good thing is that the local law enforcement and the presence of the police will respect the ICE detainers, and they will hand them over to the jails when they finish their sentence or their hearing or whatever it is. But when they release the violent criminals in the city, they will go down, they will hide, they will hide in places where it’s hard to find them. So, it’s easy to stop them in their car when they go to B to try to stop it in A when they go to A. a building with doors which are locked.
At the same time, Hankinson called on groups that take advantage of the vulnerabilities in these operations to push for an end to all enforcement operations.
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A victim of a fatal shooting involving US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is seen at the scene next to the car he was driving when agents shot through the windshield, in Biddeford, Maine, July 13, 2026. (Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)
“They will pretend that what they really want is safety and that they don’t want anyone to get hurt. But if you scratch the surface, you realize that’s not their goal. If we could have been deported with 100% safety and security, they would still be against that.”
In a tweet this week, Trump wrote, “We will not give up one of ICE’s most important and effective crime-fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!”
The president opined that the announced DHS policy changes will “play directly against criminals [sic] hands.”
Speaking directly to federal agents, he said, “ICE, be smart, be fair and smart, and go back and do your most important job.”
The agent said Trump’s change was a “major” increase in ICE officials. The agent also noted that despite the postponement, new training on traffic control and how to deal with dangerous situations has already been done for many police officers working in the sector. They said, especially given the often disproportionate increase in public attention, they would “welcome” more police training at traffic stops.
“Anytime you take a tool out of the toolbox, it’s going to create challenges [agents] to do their job effectively,” said the agent.
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The day after the Department of Homeland Security announced a temporary suspension of ICE vehicles, President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Homeland Security to postpone the study. (Adam Gray/Getty Images; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
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“In other words, if I meet them on the side of the road, they see me, get in the car and leave, that’s what they will do. And there is nothing I can do, or our team will not have the strategy to follow him and stop him,” said the agent. “We’re going to have to hope that he stops or, God forbid, he crashes into something and causes property and/or bodily injury to another person, a third party.”
“I don’t want to hurt anybody; I really don’t,” they said. “I think any sane person would agree with me and say, ‘Hey, let’s look at how we can make this safe for everybody.’
