Less than two
weeks ago, following a pair of fatal shootings by immigration officers in Texas and Maine, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ordered a
halt to vehicle stops
nationwide.
The directive was initially passed down through ICE field offices on the evening of July 13 — just hours after the
Maine shooting
— followed by an official agencywide memo that made the rounds the next morning.
Then, on July 15, President Donald Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social and
directed ICE to resume
its vehicle stops, presumably reversing the orders announced the day before by ICE internal leadership.
“The president says one thing but in reality we all follow established policy.”
Despite Trump’s apparent reversal of the ICE directive, immigration enforcement officers in at least 4 so-called areas of responsibility — ICE’s regional jurisdictions — did not resume vehicle stops, according to officials who spoke with The Intercept.
“I follow policy that comes down the appropriate channels,” said one ICE official, who works in a southern regional office and requested anonymity to avoid retaliation. “The president says one thing but in reality we all follow established policy.”
A second ICE official, who operates in the Western U.S., told The Intercept, “Following the orders of the guys I’ve worked with in the field and have my back vs the head of an administration that treats me like a meme? It’s a no brainer.”
Three other ICE whistleblowers from areas of responsibility in the Midwest, South, and Northeast also told The Intercept that vehicle stops did not resume in their areas of responsibility over the past week. (ICE did not respond to a request for comment.)
Now, however, a new official vehicle stops policy has been passed down through the proper channels at ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division.
An internal agencywide email, sent on July 22 and obtained by The Intercept, ordered the resumption of vehicle stops, with
… [more]
