Security outside ICE headquarters during Congressional Latino Caucus rallies on February 3, 2026 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to stop inspecting vehicles following the fatal shooting of two men in their vehicles. according to many media reports.
A DHS spokesman did not directly respond to a question from States Newsroom about what some reports described as a up-to-date nationwide order.
“We are always assessing our procedures to keep our officers and criminals off our streets,” the spokesman said. “We will not disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics.”
U.S. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican running for re-election in one of the most closely watched races in the country, he said on social media on Tuesday, she said she spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Monday evening and “urged him to discontinue all non-urgent vehicle stops.” ICE officers killed a 26-year-old Colombian on Monday, he obtained legal status in his vehicle in Biddeford, Maine.
As the Trump administration moves to carry out mass deportations, there has been aggressive enforcement across the country, at least in the case 21 shootings involving federal immigration agents. At least 10 of these incidents were fatal.
Monday’s shooting in Maine linked to another shooting federal immigration officials who on July 7 killed 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas, again drawing congressional ire and demands for answers.
DHS said neither man was initially a person of interest for immigration authorities.
Latino Caucus Calls for Abolition of ICE
On Tuesday, the Congressional Latino Caucus condemned federal immigration agents for the recent shootings, calling for congressional oversight and disbanding ICE.
“An agency that behaves as if it is above the law cannot be reformed on the fringes,” said New York Democrat Nydia Velázquez. “You can’t put a band-aid over a system that’s fundamentally broken. We have to abolish ICE.”
“Here we are again dealing with the murder of a brown man, a Latino,” said the president of the Latino Caucus, Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York.
Members of the Congressional Latino Caucus said the recent killings represent a pattern of immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, coupled with conflicting statements from the Department of Homeland Security and independent video footage of the incidents.
The department came under tight scrutiny after federal immigration officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis in January. Minnesota prosecutors announced on Monday that they began receiving evidence from the federal government regarding their killings after the Trump administration initially refused to turn over the evidence to local law enforcement.
Espaillat said that on July 24, Latino Caucus members will hold a field hearing with House Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee. Democrats plan to focus the hearing on the murder of Salgado Araujo, a construction worker, husband and father of three children who are U.S. citizens.
ICE will get billions
Texas Democrat Joaquin Castro said Congress must not only exploit its subpoena power to conduct oversight, but must also freeze ICE hiring and defund the agency.
Congressional Republicans funded ICE and the Border Patrol with $70 billion through September 2029 through a special legislative process after Democrats refused to fund DHS for fiscal year 2026.
Additionally, last year, Republicans in Congress approved about $170 billion for DHS to enforce immigration law and hire more ICE and Border Patrol agents.
“We must disband ICE this Congress,” Castro said. “Otherwise these killings will continue. In a few days or weeks there will be another victim.”
Texas Democratic Rep. Sylvia Garcia said she has a meeting this week with Mullin of the Department of Homeland Security during which she plans to ask questions related to the shootings in Texas and Maine.
“This is a human life,” Araujo said of Salgado. “He wasn’t a target. He had no criminal record. Maybe he wasn’t even the right man. These are very disturbing questions for everyone.”
