Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a July 15 statement that illegal immigrants who are attempting to evade arrest are engaging in a dangerous activity, amid Trump administration messaging on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) traffic stops.
In an email to The Epoch Times, a DHS spokesperson included a statement from Mullin saying that ICE’s primary goal is to keep its officers safe and get criminals off the streets.
“Illegal aliens will be arrested and deported wherever they are. If you are here illegally, LEAVE NOW. As our officers carry out operations to enforce our nation’s laws, they are facing a more than 1,300 percent increase in vehicle attacks,” he said.
Mullin later said that DHS is reminding illegal immigrants that “attempting to evade arrest is dangerous” and suggested that such “reckless illegal alien activity” was promoted by Democrats and officials who want illegal immigrants to “openly defy ICE.”
President Donald Trump said in a July 15 post on Truth Social that ICE should not end its practice of vehicle stops and that a decision to do so would be “playing right into the criminal’s hands” and those of Democrats who have called for restrictions on ICE. DHS reposted a screenshot of Trump’s post without comment on July 15.
In the social media post, Trump told ICE to be “judicious, fair and smart.” He also said that millions of people were allowed into the United States under the Biden administration without being vetted or processed.
On July 14, White House border czar Tom Homan said that a DHS and ICE decision to halt immigration agents carrying out stops of cars would be temporary and said that a review would be initiated of the agency’s policies, coming after several ICE-involved shootings in recent days.
“It’s not a policy change. It’s a temporary pause,” Homan said in an interview with Fox News on July 14.
He said that the halt in car stops will likely be “short” and that ICE agents are “well-trained in vehicle stops.”
His remark came hours before Trump wrote on social media that ICE should continue to carry out traffic stops, which came after two ICE-related fatal shooting incidents in Houston and Biddeford, Maine, in recent days.
DHS said on July 13 that an ICE officer fatally shot an illegal immigrant in Biddeford while carrying out a removal order of another person.
It said 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.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) told The Associated Press that Mullin spoke to him about the incident in Biddeford and said ICE officers were there to serve an arrest warrant. The person who was shot and killed wasn’t the one who was served the warrant, he said.
On July 7, an ICE officer in Houston fatally shot an illegal immigrant from Mexico after federal agents driving vehicles pursued him, officials said. Authorities said agents were searching for a different person when they attempted to stop a vehicle driven by Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who allegedly rammed an ICE vehicle, prompting an officer to open fire in self-defense.
Separately, on July 14, Homan told reporters that the investigation needs to play out and that officers will be held accountable if they are found to have acted inappropriately or illegally.
The shootings come amid a Trump administration push to carry out its mass deportations agenda, which Trump campaigned on during his successful 2024 presidential campaign.
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