Trump administration orders ICE to suspend most vehicle stops after 2
deadly shootings
[July 15, 2026]
By PATRICK WHITTLE, JACK BROOK, REBECCA SANTANA and
MICHAEL R. SISAK
BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP) — Trump administration officials told Immigration
and Customs Enforcement officers to suspend most vehicle stops after two
deadly shootings within a week, people familiar with the decision said
Tuesday.
The policy change came after an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian
driver Monday in Maine and a week after one shot and killed a motorist
in Houston, renewing criticism of the agency’s enforcement tactics that
were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and
Renee Good in Minnesota.
In Florida on Tuesday, a third man in roughly a week died during an
encounter with immigration officers. This time, a 28-year-old man was
killed after he was hit by a tractor trailer while running from
immigration and other federal officers, authorities said.
The suspension of vehicle stops allows room for exceptions when
executing a criminal warrant or working with partner agencies, according
to a person who spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss
sensitive law enforcement operations. Matthew Felling, a spokesperson
for Maine Sen. Angus King, said the senator’s office was also told by
the Department of Homeland Security that ICE was suspending stops.
Hundreds of people in Maine protested Tuesday over the fatal shooting of
Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national.
DHS said Monday that an officer, “fearing for public safety,” shot and
killed Durán Guerrero while officers were watching the home of someone
they believed was in the U.S. illegally and facing a final order of
removal from the country. It said in a post on X that when ICE tried to
stop a car driven by someone who came from the home, the person
attempted to flee in the vehicle and the officer fired.
That was a shift from how King earlier described the encounter, when he
said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer
opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. King
said Mullin told him the officers were trying to serve an arrest
warrant, but not for the man who was shot.
DHS, which oversees ICE, didn’t respond to an email seeking clarity on
what led to the shooting.
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 quarreled with U.S. President Donald Trump, urged
Trump to provide an explanation and accused ICE officers of treating
Durán Guerrero as “an inferior being without rights.”
The shooting also sparked outrage in Maine, where hundreds of 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 crowd.
Maine’s congressional delegation on Tuesday demanded a “comprehensive,
transparent, and expedited investigation.”
Questions surround the shooting
Durán Guerrero's shooting marked at least the ninth time ICE has used
deadly force since Trump began his immigration crackdown.
Photos showed bullet holes in Durán Guerrero’s car windshield, but the
officers involved in the shooting didn’t have body cameras, leaving many
questions. Among them are how close the officer was to the vehicle when
they fired, whether officers told Durán Guerrero to stop, and why ICE
believes he had put the public in danger.
“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.
Border Czar Tom Homan told reporters Tuesday that the investigation
needs to play out.
“If officers acted inappropriately or illegally, they’ll be held
accountable," he said.
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Protesters gather near a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
facility Scarborough, Maine, one day after the shooting of Johan
Sebastián Durán Guerrero, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert
F. Bukaty)
Maine's attorney general’s office, which noted that it’s working
with federal agencies to investigate, said initial statements
suggest the driver was trying to flee in the direction of the
officer, whose name hasn’t been released and who was placed on
leave.
The state's other senator, Republican Susan Collins, said Mullin
told her that DHS’ Office of Inspector General is investigating in
cooperation with the FBI.
Democrats seeking to unseat Collins in November sought Tuesday to
connect her with ICE's methods, which have drawn public scrutiny and
derision. Collins later said in a statement that although ICE needs
to improve, eliminating the agency would make the nation less safe.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who is vying for Collins'
seat, called the ICE officers at the shooting “thugs” during a vigil
Tuesday evening in Lewiston.
“That agency is broken and we need to go back to a time where the
rule of law united all of us regardless of the politics,” she told
the crowd.
Video shows the shooting's aftermath
According to neighbors and public records, Guerrero lived in an
apartment about 150 feet (46 meters) from where his car came to a
rest outside an apartment building across the street from a pawnshop
and laundromat.
Video from a nearby business' security camera obtained by the AP
shows a white car slowly approaching an intersection before making
several circles. A law enforcement SUV blocks its path and two
officers open the driver’s door and drag out a limp body.
It isn't clear from the video when the shots were fired.
Daniel Boucher 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.’”
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.”
Durán Guerrero is survived by his wife and young daughter
Two advocacy groups — the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and
Presente! — said Durán Guerrero was authorized to work in the U.S.
Neighbors say Durán Guerrero was a friendly and familiar face even
though they rarely chatted because he didn’t appear to speak
English.
Claudia Morton, who often waved to Durán Guerrero, was distraught.
“The whole world should be crying,” she said.
Dozens of Durán Guerrero's relatives and neighbors gathered in
Bucaramanga, his hometown in northeastern Colombia, to remember him
on Tuesday. They stood outside his parents’ home, holding candles
around a table where a photograph of him rested beside a statue of
the Virgin Mary.
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