President Donald Trump stated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should continue vehicle stops following recent fatal shootings, which seems to contradict the newly introduced policy to halt such checks.
Trump expressed this early Wednesday on his social media platform, noting that ICE “is doing a GREAT job that needs to be done.” The Republican president emphasized that to deport criminals who, according to him, entered the country under the previous Democratic administration, “we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT abandon one of ICE’s most important and effective tools in fighting crime — VEHICLE STOPS!”
According to Trump, if vehicle stops are abandoned, “we will be playing into the hands of criminals.” New internal recommendations to halt such stops emerged after an ICE officer shot a Colombian driver in Maine on Monday, and just a week after another officer shot a driver in Houston.
Growing criticism and fatal incidents
These incidents have renewed criticism of the agency’s tactics, which had already faced widespread condemnation last winter after the deaths of Alex Pretti and Rene Good in Minnesota.
In Florida, on Tuesday, a third man died in less than a week following an encounter with immigration officers. This time, a 28-year-old man was killed after being struck by a truck while fleeing from immigration and other federal law enforcement officers, authorities reported.
According to AP, similar incidents have repeatedly occurred since the start of the Trump administration’s tough immigration policy: federal officers stop drivers and then claim they were forced to open fire because the vehicles posed a danger to them. This occurs despite decades of warnings from law enforcement experts who emphasize that shooting at moving vehicles creates serious danger and should almost always be avoided.
Source: AP
