Late yesterday, after two shootings involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents that resulted in fatalities, the Department of Homeland Security ordered agents to suspend the use of traffic stops. The pause would allow DHS to review policies that may put agents and bystanders in danger, while insisting that the use of lethal force in these cases was justified. In both Texas and Maine, agents reported being attacked by the cars driven by the two men shot and killed:
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.
As I noted last night, the Pretti case is a non sequitur. No vehicle was involved in that shooting; Pretti attempted to interfere with an ICE arrest while (legally) carrying a firearm by approaching on foot, which resulted in his shooting. Video of the Good shooting clearly showed Renee Good attempting to obstruct ICE with her vehicle, refusing to comply with demands to exit, and accelerating toward the ICE agent who shot her. Good was not a party to the warrant being served at that time; she and her wife had set up the obstruction to promote their opposition to ICE, as her wife filmed it from the sidewalk. And in any case, Good wasn’t involved in a traffic stop at all, nor were the officers until she attempted to obstruct the execution of a federal warrant, which makes that case another non sequitur.
It’s not yet clear that the two incidents in the past week involved a justifiable use of lethal force related to traffic stops. The Department of Justice will investigate those cases through the FBI, as the incidents resulted from the enforcement of federal law, which removes jurisdiction to federal courts. Nevertheless, DHS apparently wanted to step back to assess the policies around traffic stops to determine whether changes might improve safety all the way around, which would be a reasonable step, albeit perhaps a bit on the cautious side.
The pause on the stops got stopped this morning anyway. Trump took to Truth Social to argue that the traffic stops are too valuable a tool to pause, and that the demands for a halt are part of the “Dumocrats” attempt to kneecap ICE and to allow the Biden-era surge in illegal aliens to remain unaddressed:
The men and women of ICE are doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done. CRIME IS WAY DOWN IN AMERICA, in many cases with numbers that haven’t been seen in decades. The Open Border Policy of Sleepy Joe Biden allowed 25,000,000 people to pour into our Country, unchecked and unvetted. Many were Criminals, and we have to get them out. In order to do this, we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands. The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch. I.C.E., be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job. Keep those Crime Stat Records coming! Remember, you are loved and respected in America. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
The Wall Street Journal provides some context, noting that traffic stops do play an important part in enforcement:
Traffic stops are one of the most common tools used by immigration officers to carry out arrests.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin spoke with Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) after Monday’s shooting in Maine and discussed suspending the use of traffic stops, according to a person familiar with their conversations.
Collins is up for re-election in Maine, a state that Democrats see as crucial for winning back the Senate. …
Mullin said during his confirmation hearing that he wanted to keep the agency out of the headlines. But DHS also faces pressure to increase arrests to carry out the president’s promise of mass deportations.
The WSJ also rehashes the Pretti and Good shootings, which again had nothing to do with the policies around traffic stops. Both had a lot more to do with radical activists interfering in federal law enforcement activities, which organizers have promoted and coordinated in Minneapolis and elsewhere. It’s not clear what the circumstances are with the two most recent shootings, but it’s at least possible that the same dynamics are in play. Again, that would have less to do with the traffic-stop tool and more to do with intentional interference in federal law enforcement, if so.
And finally, while it may have been wise to pause the stops briefly while evaluating methods, it’s absurd to insist that law enforcement cannot conduct traffic stops as part of its functions, at any level and for any extended period of time. No one has the right to be free of traffic stops; driver’s licenses carry implied (and sometimes explicit) consent for law enforcement stops for any reasonable suspicion of violations. There is less of a potential constitutional issue with traffic stops than with entry into homes and businesses to conduct investigations, and where deportation orders already exist, no issue with stops and detention of any kind except among those who think immigration enforcement is altogether illegitimate. Trump’s right about that being the real point of this pressure, and the necessity of establishing the authority for these stops likely outweighs whatever benefit even a brief pause may provide.
Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.
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