Trump Reverses ICE Traffic Stop Pause Amid MAGA Backlash

President Donald Trump reversed a temporary move to pause most vehicle stops by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after complaints from supporters, according to two people familiar with the matter.

CNN reported on Tuesday that ICE officers had been instructed to largely suspend vehicle stops until further notice, with some exceptions. Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said the step was meant to be temporary, following ICE-related shootings in Houston, Texas, and Maine.

ICE Review After Fatal Shootings

The shootings have led senior officials within the Department of Homeland Security to consider interim changes to operations, sources said. The pause—however brief—removed a key enforcement tool as the administration sought to increase arrests tied to Trump’s mass deportation plans.

Officials have also been working under pressure to meet the administration’s self-set target of 2,000 arrests per day.

Markwayne Mullin, the Homeland Security secretary, and Homan did not inform Trump about the traffic stop change before it was put in place, according to two people familiar with the timeline.

Trump Reacts to Coverage and Orders Overturn

Trump became angry after seeing media coverage that described the temporary policy shift as weakening immigration enforcement. Early on Wednesday, he ordered that the guidance be reversed and posted on Truth Social that “The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch.”

CNN asked the White House for comment.

A reversal followed amid heightened criticism from prominent figures in the MAGA base. Steve Bannon, a longtime adviser to Trump, and conservative lawyer Mike Davis criticised the decision to suspend traffic stops in comments broadcast on Wednesday.

Davis, speaking on Bannon’s “War Room” programme, said Mullin should not be aligned with Senate Democrats and Susan Collins, and called for stronger action if the administration could not carry out enforcement priorities.

Guidance Reversed, Officers Told to Keep Options

The traffic stop guidance was later rolled back, a White House official said, describing it as an effort to ensure ICE officers had appropriate options while carrying out arrests aimed at deporting undocumented people.

Mullin said in a statement that he and Trump shared the same position and that ICE officers should have “all options available” to keep them safe while pursuing the administration’s mission of removing “as many illegal alien criminals” as possible.

Earlier on Wednesday, Mullin posted an image of Trump’s Truth Social message reversing the guidance. On X, he added that the top priority was to keep officers safe and remove criminals from US streets, and that anyone in the country illegally should leave.

According to the source, the guidance applied to ICE staff in Enforcement and Removal Operations, the unit responsible for arrest and deportation of undocumented immigrants. It imposed a pause on initiating vehicle stops. Officers were instead told to coordinate with partner agencies to conduct a stop when executing a criminal warrant involving an individual in a vehicle.

Killings Spur Body Camera Pledge

The administration ordered the vehicle stop pause after two fatal shootings during federal immigration enforcement operations drew renewed scrutiny of ICE. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed in Houston and Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero was shot in Biddeford, Maine. Sources said neither man was the target of the operations in which they were killed.

In the aftermath of the shootings, the Department of Homeland Security said it would “rapidly” deploy body cameras to officers across the country, as pressure mounted for independent investigations.

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16 July 2026

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