President Donald Trump says Immigration and Customs Enforcementshould continue traffic stops after two deadly shootings within a week, seeming to contradict a new policy to halt them. To remove criminals from the country, “we CANNOT give up one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” the president wrote on social media.
In Florida on Tuesday, a third man in roughly a week died during an encounter with immigration officers. The 28-year-old was killed after he was hit by a tractor-trailer while running from immigration and other federal officers, authorities said.
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Biddeford Mayor Liam LaFountain calls for a permanent ban on ICE traffic stops
In a statement, he also questioned why the ICE officers involved in the fatal shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero weren’t wearing body cameras. LaFountain pointed out that his city’s police officers have been equipped with body cameras for nearly a decade.
“The fact that ICE is swimming in billions of taxpayer dollars and can’t perform a basic function like properly equipping their people is a severe indictment,” LaFountain said. “Corrective action is required immediately.”
LaFountain added that the city is offering mental health services to Durán Guerrero’s family and all residents affected by the shooting.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin: ‘If you are here illegally, LEAVE NOW’
In response to questions about President Trump’s Wednesday morning social media post, Mullin said in a statement that the department’s “#1 goal” is to keep officers safe and get criminals off the streets.
The department didn’t respond to specific questions about whether ICE officers are now able to do traffic stops but Mullin’s statement said people in the country illegally would be “arrested and deported wherever they are.”
“If you are here illegally, LEAVE NOW,” said Mullin. “We remind illegal aliens attempting to evade arrest is dangerous.”
Man fatally shot by an ICE officer in Maine had illegally entered the US, officials said
Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national, had illegally entered the U.S. on Sept. 1, 2023, through the southern border, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday.
He was killed Monday in Biddesford, Maine, a coastal city roughly 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Portland.
Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him Monday that ICE officers were in Biddeford to serve an arrest warrant but that it was not for the person who was shot.
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, said agents were surveilling an address for a person with a final order of removal from the country.
When ICE tried to stop a vehicle driven by someone coming from that address, the “vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon,” the department said.
There have been at least 10 deaths involving immigration agents since Trump began deportation push
At least four of those deaths involved people in vehicles, including the one last week in Houston, a trend so troubling that U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Tuesday that she had urged Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin “to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops.”
John Sandweg, who was acting director at ICE, which is part of DHS, during President Barack Obama’s Democratic administration, estimated recently that there have been roughly 18 traffic stop shootings during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Questions surround the Maine shooting
Photos showed bullet holes in Johan Sebastián 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 shooting, whether officers told Durán Guerrero to stop and why ICE believes he had put the public in danger.
Border czar Tom Homan told reporters Tuesday the investigation needs to play out and that officers will be held accountable if they’re found to have acted inappropriately or illegally.
Maine’s attorney general’s office, which said it is 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.
Fatal shooting during immigration operation angers Maine
Hundreds of people in Maine protested Tuesday over the fatal shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national. Advocacy groups said Guerrero, who had a wife and a young daughter, was authorized to work in the United States.
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.
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.”
Lindsey Graham’s Senate Judiciary Committee spot draped in black
As the committee convened Wednesday for a confirmation hearing, the late South Carolina Republican’s seat at the rostrum was also marked with a vase of white roses.
Graham had been set to chair the panel in the next Congress. He died over the weekend of a tear in his aorta.
On Tuesday, Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, was sworn in to serve out the remaining months of his term, which expires in January. South Carolina Republicans are standing up a special primary election to pick a new nominee for this fall’s midterms.
High-stakes attorney general confirmation hearing getting underway
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is expected to face bipartisan scrutiny as he seeks the chance to serve out the duration of Trump’s term.
Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney, has run the department on an interim basis since April, when Pam Bondi was fired after struggling to bring successful cases against Trump’s political foes.
Since taking the reins at the Justice Department, Blanche has accelerated investigations into Trump foes, functioned as the public face of a maligned fund meant to compensate the president’s allies and alarmed press freedom advocates with an aggressive pursuit of news media leaks.
Senate to hold hearing for Trump’s pick to head intelligence agencies after weekslong delay
Jay Clayton, President Trump’s pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, weeks after Trump abruptly delayed his nomination.
Republicans and even some Democrats have been eager to quickly confirm Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, as they’ve expressed concerns about Trump’s interim appointee for the intelligence post, Bill Pulte. Pulte, who has been in the job since June 19, is a former housing official with no known intelligence experience and who used his previous administration perch to target perceived adversaries of the president.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, a Republican, expressed frustration when Trump delayed Clayton’s nomination in a social media post last month, allowing Pulte to take office. Cotton said then that Clayton had been instructed not to appear at a scheduled confirmation hearing, but he rescheduled the hearing three weeks later, with apparent approval from the White House.
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Blanche faces Senate scrutiny with Republican support key to his confirmation as attorney general
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will confront questions Wednesday about his brief but turbulent tenure atop the Justice Department during a Senate confirmation hearing that will test President Donald Trump’s grip on Republican lawmakers whose support the nominee will need for the job.
Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney, has run the department on an interim basis since April, during which time he’s accelerated investigations into Trump foes, functioned as the public face of a maligned fund meant to compensate the Republican president’s allies and alarmed press freedom advocates with an aggressive pursuit of news media leaks.
Those actions will receive fresh scrutiny at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing as Blanche testifies for the opportunity to serve out the duration of Trump’s term.
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The Latest: Trump says ICE should continue traffic stops despite new policy to halt them
