Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been carrying out a terror campaign against immigrants since Donald Trump retook office last year. ICE has shot at least 21 people since last March, including recently shooting and killing two men in vehicles in the
span of a week. The killings have sparked protest, and even led the agency to pause most traffic stops.
The president finally responded to the uproar on Wednesday … by offering unequivocal praise of ICE and insisting agents continue to conduct traffic stops.
“The men and women of ICE are doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that “we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”
Trump did not reference the killings or offer any condolences to the families of the victims.
ICE agents in Houston shot and killed Salgado Araujo in his vehicle last week while he was on his way to work. The Department of Homeland Security claimed Araujo was trying to weaponize the vehicle against agents, but the three men in the car with him have disputed this. Less than a week later, ICE agents shot and killed Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. DHS claimed he tried to flee the scene, and that an agent discharged his weapon “fearing for public safety.” Guerrero had a wife and child and according to his father was living in the U.S. legally.
The Trump administration on Tuesday ordered ICE to pause most traffic stops. Tom Homan, Trump’s immigration czar, said the order was a “short pause just to make sure we’re doing the right thing.”
Trump seems to believe they’ve sorted everything out less than 24 hours later — or, more likely, he simply doesn’t see anything wrong with how ICE has been conducting its deadly crackdown.
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