On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin ordered the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to temporarily halt vehicle stops following two fatal shootings less than a week apart. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) planned to maintain the pause until ICE officers receive additional training on conducting vehicle stops, according to CBS News.

However, exceptions remain in place: ICE will continue vehicle stops targeting individuals with serious or violent criminal histories, Fox News reports.

Critics argue the new policy could reduce ICE's arrest and removal rate, which had surged to over 10,000 arrests in just five days at the end of June. Contradicting the order on Wednesday, former President Donald Trump called traffic stops "one of I.C.E.'s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools" in a Truth Social post. He urged ICE to "go back and do your very important job," suggesting the pause would not stand under his watch.

Conversely, some right-leaning figures support the pause. Border czar Tom Homan told Fox News he is confident the change will improve officer training and outcomes without impacting ICE arrests.

Those critical of Trump's immigration policies also back the pause and have called for increased restrictions and accountability for immigration agents' enforcement tactics following the shootings.

In Maine, a witness told CBS News that 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero said "I tried to stop" when pulled from a vehicle shortly after one of the shootings.

Mike Fox, a legal fellow at the Cato Institute's Project on Criminal Justice, stated in an emailed comment that in both fatal shootings, agents used excessive force, rendering the DHS's use-of-force policy "virtually meaningless" as agents appear free to violate it with impunity. Fox added that temporary pauses and internal guidelines, such as the vehicle stop pause or pledges to deploy body cameras, are "entirely insufficient" given DHS's repeated failure to abide by legal standards.

ICE confirmed that at no point was an agent directly in front of the vehicle involved in the incidents.

Sources