White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks throughout a press briefing within the Brady Briefing Room of the White Home in Washington, DC, on July 16, 2026.
Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Photographs
disguise caption
toggle caption
Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Photographs
White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt instructed reporters on Thursday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers are persevering with to conduct car stops.
The remark got here following widespread experiences earlier within the week that these stops could be paused after two immigrants have been fatally shot by ICE brokers in early July. The workplace of Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, had confirmed to NPR on Tuesday that the Division of Homeland Safety had deliberate to make the coverage shift.
However inside hours of these experiences, President Trump posted on Reality Social that they need to proceed.
“We CANNOT quit considered one of I.C.E.’s most vital and efficient Crime Combating instruments, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” he wrote. “As soon as we do, we’re taking part in proper into the prison’s arms.”
Leavitt adopted up on these feedback at a press briefing Thursday.
“Automobile stops are persevering with,” she stated. “Verbal steering has been given to all area workplaces throughout the nation by the Division of Homeland Safety.”
“The president and the Secretary of Homeland Safety are on the identical web page that car stops are a obligatory instrument that ICE brokers want to be able to persevering with proceed their deportation marketing campaign of the worst of the worst unlawful alien criminals from our nation,” she added.
NPR reached out to DHS for readability on the coverage. It referred NPR to feedback from the White Home.
Final week, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo , an immigrant from Mexico, was shot by brokers in Houston after they tried to tug him over. The Division of Homeland Safety says Salgado Araujo tried to make use of his van as a weapon, prompting an agent to open hearth. However passengers within the van have disputed this account.
In Maine, ICE brokers tried to tug over the automobile of Joan Durán Guerrero, a Colombian nationwide. He was fatally shot by an agent on Monday.
“The car tried to flee the scene and fearing for public security an officer discharged his weapon,” DHS stated in an announcement. Nonetheless, the company has not offered any proof to again the claims.
On Tuesday, a person was fatally struck by a tractor-trailer whereas working from an ICE car cease in St. Augustine, Florida, in keeping with Florida Freeway Patrol (FHP). FHP didn’t instantly reply to an electronic mail requesting any new details about the demise.

