Trump Orders ICE to Resume Traffic Stops

President Trump wants federal immigration agents to start pulling over cars again. In a Truth Social post Wednesday, he told ICE officers to resume using traffic stops to arrest immigrants, calling them one of the agency's "most important and effective Crime Fighting tools" and claiming that dropping them would be "playing right into the criminal's hands." The move undercuts a Tuesday internal directive from ICE leadership that had told officers to stop initiating vehicle stops in most cases.

• That pause followed two fatal shootings tied to immigration operations—one on Monday in Biddeford, Maine, and another last week in Houston. In both cases, lawmakers say the men who were killed were not the intended targets.

Sources tell NBC News that senior ICE leaders were surprised by Trump's order. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who has publicly vowed to boost arrests while keeping officers "safe," did not address Trump's reversal order directly but said those in the country illegally "will be arrested and deported wherever they are." A source tells the Journal that Mullin discussed suspending traffic stops when he spoke to Maine's Sen. Susan Collins after Monday's shooting. Tom Homan, Trump's border czar, told Fox News on Tuesday that the move was a temporary pause, not a policy change. "This is going to be a short-term review to make sure ICE agents are ‌safe and doing the right thing," he said, per Reuters.