White House says ICE traffic stops will continue after deadly shootings

VPM | By Alina Hartounian

Published July 16, 2026 at 9:31 PM EDT

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 16, 2026.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are continuing to conduct vehicle stops.

The comment came following widespread reports earlier in the week that those stops would be paused after two immigrants were fatally shot by ICE agents in early July. The office of Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, had confirmed to NPR on Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security had planned to make the policy shift.

But within hours of those reports, President Trump posted on Truth Social that they must continue.

“We CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” he wrote. “Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”

Leavitt followed up on those comments at a press briefing Thursday.

“Vehicle stops are continuing,” she said. “Verbal guidance has been given to all field offices across the country by the Department of Homeland Security.”

“The president and the Secretary of Homeland Security are on the same page that vehicle stops are a necessary tool that ICE agents need in order to continuing continue their deportation campaign of the worst of the worst illegal alien criminals from our country,” she added.

NPR reached out to DHS for clarity on the policy. It referred NPR to comments from the White House.

Last week, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo , an immigrant from Mexico, was shot by agents in Houston after they attempted to pull him over. The Department of Homeland Security says Salgado Araujo tried to use his van as a weapon, prompting an agent to open fire. But passengers in the van have disputed this account.

In Maine, ICE agents tried to pull over the car of Joan Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national. He was fatally shot by an agent on Monday.

“The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety an officer discharged his weapon,” DHS said in a statement. However, the agency has not provided any evidence to back the claims.

On Tuesday, a man was fatally struck by a tractor-trailer while running from an ICE vehicle stop in St. Augustine, Florida, according to Florida Highway Patrol (FHP). FHP did not immediately respond to an email requesting any new information about the death.

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Alina Hartounian

Alina Hartounian is a supervising editor for NPR's NewsHub, an audience focused team of reporters and editors who largely write for NPR.org. While guiding coverage, she has also taken time to write about bicolored lobsters and microchip graffiti.

Hartounian joined NPR from The Associated Press where she was a U.S. Assignment Manager who assigned stories, offered standards guidance, and helped mobilize teams to cover major breaking news.

She has worked on many major breaking stories, managing the AP's social newsgathering for elections, mass shootings, and the January 6 insurrection.

In her nearly 15 years at the AP, Hartounian helped build the foundation for social media newsgathering, standards, and promotion. She edited and guided visuals on some of the top immigration stories during the Trump administration and was the global eyes and ears for the AP in the U.S. evening hours through much of the pandemic.

She is based in Arizona, where she lives with her husband, two kids, and a desert tortoise named Dotty.

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