Former acting ICE director on vehicle stops: ‘Time we take a hard look’

Administration Former acting ICE director on vehicle stops: ‘Time we take a hard look’ Comments: by Max Rego - 07/14/26 5:18 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Max Rego - 07/14/26 5:18 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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John Sandweg, the former acting director of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), on Tuesday said the agency should pause conducting traffic stops, which it has done on a temporary basis.

“I think it is absolutely time that we take a hard look, if not a moratorium on vehicular stops, until such time as we can decide…. what do we need to do to prevent this from recurring,” Sandweg told host Kate Bolduan on “CNN News Central.”

In the wake of ICE officers fatally shooting two individuals in vehicles over the last week, the agency has privately directed its officers to temporarily pause traffic stops, sources confirmed to NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network.

The pause applies nationwide. In a statement, ICE declined to confirm the shift in policy.

“We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets. We will not disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics,” the agency said.

Sandweg, who ran ICE for nearly seven months during the Obama administration despite no prior law enforcement experience, said Tuesday that personnel from the agency’s enforcement and removal operations division “do not have widespread experience in vehicular stops,” as opposed to local or state law enforcement officers.

Last week, ICE officers fatally shot Lorenzo Sagrado Araujo in Houston, Texas. ICE has said the 52-year-old weaponized his vehicle against officers, but other men in the van Sagrado Araujo was driving disputed that characterization, saying officers in unmarked vehicles trailed them before surrounding their vehicle on the driver and passenger sides.

Salgado Araujo lived in the Houston area for 35 years, was attempting to obtain a work permit and was close to obtaining legal status, according to his family. Salgado Araujo’s relatives have also said he did not have a criminal record.

On Tuesday, an ICE officer in Biddeford, Maine, shot and killed 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said Monday the officer shot Guerrero after “fearing for public safety.”

Guerrero was a Colombian citizen who had authorization to work in the U.S. and a Social Security number, according to the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente! Maine.

Neither Salgado Araujo nor Guerrero were the target of warrants ICE officers were enforcing at the time of their deaths, according to local lawmakers. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Tuesday the latter was the 11th individual fatally shot by ICE or U.S. Border Patrol personnel since President Trump returned to office.

Sandweg said Tuesday the shootings involving vehicle stops occurred because those situations are inherently “dangerous.”

He added, “They put the officers in danger. They put the subjects in danger.”

Sandweg later said, “Why are we continuing to put ICE agents in danger to take into custody a non-criminal who appears to pose no threat to public safety when there are other ways we could take that individual into custody? Wait until they arrive at their destination. Wait until they leave their residence.”

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