Calls for ICE reform grow after agents kill 2 men in their cars in 1 week

Calls for ICE reform grow after agents kill 2 men in their cars in 1 week

Trump administration has ordered ICE agents to suspend most vehicle stops

Two recent fatal shootings of motorists by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are sparking renewed calls for changes to how the federal agency operates.

U.S. officials claimed in both cases this month that the victims had used their vehicles to threaten pursuing officers. The officers were not wearing bodycams in either incident, and reports have emerged that both victims — one in Biddeford, Maine, and the other in Houston, Texas — were targeted by mistake.

Following reports on Tuesday that Trump officials have told ICE officers to suspend most vehicle stops, legal experts told CBC News that's not enough.

"I would like to see, first of all, a policy that's in line with the vast majority of police departments in the country, which is that you don't shoot at moving vehicles," said Rachel Moran, professor and founder of the Criminal and Juvenile Defense Clinic at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis.

She says law enforcement shooting at moving vehicles is a "really obvious, basic issue" that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents have been violating. "Everyone knows it's really dangerous."

Motorist fatally shot by ICE agent in Maine

Trump administration tells ICE to suspend most vehicle stops

Protesters have taken to the streets in Maine over the Monday killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national, by an ICE agent.

The DHS said in a statement on X that the officer, "fearing for public safety," shot and killed Durán Guerrero after a driver attempted to flee the scene of a vehicle stop.

Maine Sen. Angus King said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant at the time, but not for the man who was shot.

Two advocacy groups — Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition and Presente! — said Durán Guerrero, who had a wife and daughter, was authorized to work in the U.S.

Protests break out in Maine after ICE agents fatally shot man

Last Tuesday, in Houston, an ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old homebuilder Lorenzo Salgado Araujo after federal authorities driving unmarked vehicles pursued him while he was driving to a construction job site.

The agency said without presenting evidence that Salgado Araujo, a father of three, rammed an ICE vehicle and an officer officer fired a weapon in self defence.

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Witnesses, including the three other men who were in the van, said that was a lie, according to reporting by The Washington Post and others.

DHS said Salgado Araujo "resembled" their intended target.

Killings show 'extreme carelessness'

Moran says the latest killings highlight an "extreme carelessness" in the way ICE operates.

"If you created a playbook of how to create dangerous situations that will inevitably lead to unjustified violence, here we are," she said.

ICE agents have killed at least nine people during the Trump administration's immigration crackdowns, and drew widespread condemnation and massive protests across the country after the January killings of U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.

The New York Times recently reported that ICE has shot at more than 20 people since last September, and nearly all of them were in their cars.

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DHS claimed Renee Good "weaponized" her vehicle against ICE officials when she was shot in January. In a separate incident, DHS claimed 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez, also a U.S. citizen, "intentionally" ran over a federal agent before he was fatally shot in March 2025.

Both claims were contradicted by video footage from the scenes that emerged later.

Moran says people should be "extremely skeptical" of any claims DHS makes without evidence, because she says they have repeatedly made "demonstrably false" statements about the actions of ICE agents, particularly with regards to how the people they shot at were using their vehicles.

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Experts told CBC News the quotas ICE agents are expected to meet as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda are playing a role in the apparent recklessness and targeting of the wrong suspects.

The New York Times reported earlier this month that ICE officials were told the White House wanted 2,000 arrests per day.

David Harris, a professor of criminal law, criminal procedure and evidence at the University of Pittsburgh, says ICE agents are pushed "pretty relentlessly" to respond to numerical targets, with support all the way up the chain of command, which he says is "a recipe for things to go wrong."

When it becomes a numbers game, Harris says, agents will start looking for people who fit the broad description of suspects.

"Their information is spotty or imperfect, and they see somebody who looks like they might be a Latino, looks like he might be going to work, and, well, 'Maybe it's him. Let's go after him,' " he said.

"At best, you're going to waste your time. At worst, we have disasters like this."

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A source told The Associated Press that the order to suspend vehicle stops is not absolute and there is room for exceptions when executing a criminal warrant or working with partner agencies. It is not clear how long the suspension will last.

Harris says ICE should use the suspension of vehicle stops to take the time to identify problems with its protocols and procedures and modify its training and policies.

He says giving ICE agents police powers without police training — for example, putting inexperienced people in the field without adequate training in conducting traffic stops — creates a dangerous situation for everyone involved.

"The common thread here is that the mission is not public safety. The mission is something else," he said. "We shouldn't be surprised when this is happening. It's terrible and should stop."

Kevin Maimann is a senior writer for CBC News based in Edmonton. He has covered a wide range of topics for publications including VICE, the Toronto Star, Xtra Magazine and the Edmonton Journal. You can reach Kevin by email at kevin.maimann@cbc.ca.

With files from The Associated Press