On Tuesday, July 14, 2026, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was ordered to temporarily halt most vehicle stops across the United States after two recent fatal shootings involving ICE agents in Texas and Maine.

The directive came from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who acted after discussions with Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine, who urged the cessation of all non-urgent vehicle stops. According to sources cited by ABC News, ICE officers will still conduct vehicle stops in cases involving the most dangerous targets, but the pause is otherwise in effect while new training on vehicle stops is implemented.

The order follows the fatal shooting on Monday, July 13, 2026, of 26-year-old Johan Sebastián Guerrero, a Colombian driver, by an ICE agent in Biddeford, Maine. The Maine Attorney General's Office stated that the suspect attempted to flee in the vehicle toward the officer and was fatally shot. ICE said it was conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an individual with a final order of removal and attempted a vehicle stop when the individual departed in a car.

Hours earlier, in Florida, a 28-year-old man fleeing immigration and other federal agents at a gas station in St. Augustine was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer. The man was one of four occupants who fled on foot after their vehicle stopped at the gas station. Florida Highway Patrol confirmed the incident, marking it as the third death in about a week involving ICE encounters, following the shootings in Texas and Maine.

The Department of Homeland Security declined to discuss specific law enforcement tactics but stated it is "always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets."

Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately responded to requests for further comment from The Associated Press.

Sources