ICE curtails traffic stops after second shooting death this month
by Stephen Dinan · The Washington TimesICE has reportedly issued a new policy ordering officers not to engage in traffic stops save for exceptional circumstances, acting after a second man was shot and killed this month during a vehicle incident.
The shift was described as a temporary measure while U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reviews its policies and training.
ICE declined to comment on the change, saying it wouldn’t “discuss law enforcement tactics.”
“We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets,” the agency said.
A man was slain in Houston last week during a vehicle incident, and another was killed in Maine on Monday after ICE said the driver “attempted to flee the scene” in the vehicle.
An officer, “fearing for public safety,” opened fire and killed the man, ICE said.
While traffic stops are common for police, ICE’s critics have complained that they are a bad fit for the immigration agency, whose deportation officers are usually carrying out civil arrests, not criminal ones.
Lynn Tramonte, executive director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, compared ICE’s civil enforcement to the IRS or environmental enforcement and said it would be “absurd” to think of tax assessors carrying guns and driving unmarked vehicles.
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“It’s the same here. Civil laws should be enforced in courtrooms and office buildings, not the streets of United States communities,” she said after Monday’s shooting.
After the Monday shooting, Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, called for a suspension of traffic stops.
“While the investigation of the Biddeford shooting is not yet complete, it raises sufficient critical questions that I spoke with DHS Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin last night and urged him to cease all nonurgent vehicle stops,” she said Tuesday.
The new constraints on ICE reportedly still let officers conduct stops in cases where the target is believed to have a major or violent criminal history.
But in Monday’s case, the man slain was apparently not the target of the arrest.
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ICE said he had departed from a residence that officers had under surveillance.
Tuesday’s shift emboldened immigrant rights groups, who said it was welcome but not enough.
“We must abolish ICE next,” the New York Immigration Coalition said.
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Stephen Dinan
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