ICE Suspends Most Vehicle Stops Following Fatal Shootings in Maine and Houston

The Trump administration has directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to suspend the majority of vehicle stops following two deadly shootings in just over a week, a source familiar with the matter confirmed Tuesday.

The directive came a day after an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian driver in Maine, and a week after a separate officer fatally shot a motorist in Houston. The incidents have renewed scrutiny of the agency’s tactics during enforcement operations.

The suspension is not absolute; exceptions remain for executing criminal warrants or coordinating with partner agencies, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement operations.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Maine on Tuesday over the Monday killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national, by an ICE officer.

The Department of Homeland Security stated the officer, “fearing for public safety,” shot Durán Guerrero while officers were surveilling a home believed to be occupied by an individual in the U.S. illegally with a final removal order. In a post on X, DHS said that when ICE attempted to stop a vehicle leaving the residence, the driver tried to flee and the officer fired.

That account differed from the description provided hours earlier by Maine Sen. Angus King, who said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. King added that Mullin said officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant, but not for the man who was shot.

In a scathing post on X, outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the shooting a targeted killing “at the hands of the U.S. government.”

Petro, who has openly clashed with President Donald Trump, urged the U.S. leader to provide an explanation and accused ICE officers of treating Durán Guerrero as “an inferior being without rights.”

The shooting has sparked outrage in Biddeford and the surrounding area. Protesters gathered Tuesday outside an ICE detention center in Scarborough, just up the coast between Biddeford and Portland.

“These people are killers and they must leave our state now,” organizer Todd Chretien told the gathering, where some held signs reading “Stop the murder” and “End this terror.”

Durán Guerrero’s death marked the second time in a week that ICE used deadly force and at least the ninth fatality since Trump launched his immigration crackdown.

The officers involved in the Biddeford shooting, which is just southwest of Portland, were not wearing body cameras, leaving numerous questions about the encounter. Among them: how close the officer was to the vehicle when firing, whether officers ordered Durán Guerrero to stop, and how ICE determined he had endangered the public.

“We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets. We will not disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement.

Maine’s other senator, Republican Susan Collins, said Mullin informed her that DHS’ Office of Inspector General is investigating in cooperation with the FBI.

Photos revealed bullet holes in the car’s windshield.

The Maine attorney general’s office, which said it is working cooperatively with federal agencies to investigate, said initial statements suggest the driver was trying to flee in the direction of the officer, whose name has not been released and who has been placed on leave.

Video from a nearby business’s security camera obtained by the AP shows a white car slowly approaching an intersection before circling several times. A law enforcement SUV blocked its path and two officers opened the driver’s door and dragged out a limp body.

It is not clear from the footage when the shots were fired.

Daniel Boucher, a nearby resident, said he heard a “pop, pop, pop” and ran to the intersection.

“His face was bloody. His head was bloody,” Boucher said. “I clearly heard the victim say, ‘I tried to stop.'”

At one point, Boucher said, the officer who shot Durán Guerrero walked close to him.

“He looked at me and said, ‘He tried to run me over,’ or something to that effect,” Boucher said. “I don’t remember his exact words.”

Two advocacy groups — the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! — said Durán Guerrero was authorized to work in the U.S.

Neighbors described Durán Guerrero as a friendly, familiar face, though they rarely conversed because he did not appear to speak English.

Sadie Dilboy and Cory Poulin, who own a laundromat near the intersection where the car stopped, said they saw Durán Guerrero frequently.

“Everyone knows him,” Dilboy said, recalling that he often visited their store with his daughter and gave her quarters to buy candy.

Claudia Morton, who lives near Durán Guerrero and his family and often waved to him, was distraught over the shooting. “The whole world should be crying,” she said Tuesday.

Last week in Houston, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo after federal authorities in unmarked vehicles pursued him while he was driving to a construction job site.

The two shootings come amid a Trump administration push to carry out its mass deportations agenda. Over five days at the end of June, ICE arrested more than 10,000 people.

The figures indicate that while the administration is no longer targeting individual cities, arrests are surging. The administration’s enforcement efforts drew widespread condemnation last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.

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