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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are being instructed to end “most” vehicle stops nationwide in a major policy shift, effective immediately.
According to multiple federal sources, ICE agents will cease making traffic stops, which have played a significant role in the agency’s operations until now. A federal source told Fox News that ICE will continue conducting vehicle stops only for those considered to be the most egregious targets with serious or violent criminal histories.
This comes after two people were killed in ICE officer-involved shootings in Maine and Texas in the last week.
A senior ICE source remarked to Fox News that the change is “horrible but needs to happen.”
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Another senior ICE source said this policy change will be temporary. According to the source, the new policy will remain in place until new training on vehicle stops is approved by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and given to agents operating in the field.
Until now, ICE agents have commonly carried out vehicle stops as part of the agency’s regular immigration enforcement operations. The stops, however, have grown increasingly controversial with incidents such as last week’s shootings.
This Monday, an ICE agent shot and killed a man in Biddeford, Maine, leading to hundreds of protesters marching by the shooting site. According to Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, Mullin told him in a phone call that the man killed in the shooting was not the intended target of the arrest warrant federal agents were executing.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, an ICE spokesperson said that agents were conducting “targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal.”
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An individual believed to be the illegal alien ICE was tracking departed the residence in a vehicle. When ICE agents attempted to conduct a vehicle stop, the vehicle attempted to flee the scene and “fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,” the agency said.
According to the spokesperson, “the driver of the vehicle was struck, and emergency services were immediately contacted. He passed away from his injuries.”
The week before, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican citizen who authorities said was in the country illegally, was shot and killed in Houston after he tried to ram an ICE officer with his vehicle during a traffic stop, the agency said.
Araujo was struck and taken to a hospital, where he later died.
His family has disputed ICE’s account of the shooting and called on the agency to release any available video evidence.
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However, when asked whether the officers involved were wearing body cameras, DHS told Fox News they “had not been issued body-worn cameras due to back-to-back Democrat shutdowns.”
Both shootings are being investigated by federal and local authorities.
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser, Kailey Schuyler, Jessica Sonkin, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Kelly Phares contributed to this piece.
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