Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a July 15 statement that illegal immigrants who are attempting to evade arrest are engaging in a dangerous activity, amid Trump administration messaging on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) traffic stops.
In an email to The Epoch Times, a DHS spokesperson included a statement from Mullin saying that ICE’s primary goal is to “keep our officers safe and get criminals OFF our streets.”
“Illegal aliens will be arrested and deported wherever they are. If you are here illegally, LEAVE NOW. As our officers carry out operations to enforce our nation’s laws, they are facing a more than 1,300 percent increase in vehicle attacks,” he said.
Mullin later said that DHS is reminding illegal immigrants that “attempting to evade arrest is dangerous” and suggested that such “reckless illegal alien activity” was promoted by Democratic lawmakers and officials who want them to “openly defy ICE.”
In the social media post, Trump told ICE to be “judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job.” He also said that millions of people were allowed into the United States under the Biden administration without being vetted or processed.
On July 14, White House border czar Tom Homan said that a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) decision to halt immigration agents carrying out stops of cars would be temporary and said that a review would be initiated of the agency’s policies, coming after several ICE-involved shootings in recent days.
“It’s not a policy change. It’s a temporary pause,” Homan said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, adding that the halt in car stops will likely be “short” and that ICE agents are “well-trained in vehicle stops.”
DHS said on July 13 that an officer who was “fearing for public safety” fatally shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national, in Biddeford while officers were watching the home of someone they believed was in the United States illegally and facing a final order of removal.
It said that when ICE tried to stop a car driven by someone who came from the home, the person attempted to flee in the vehicle, and the officer fired.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said Mullin told him the officers were in Biddeford to serve an arrest warrant but that it was not for the person who was shot. King said Mullin told him that earlier information that the man was the target of an enforcement action was incorrect.
On July 7, an ICE officer in Houston fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, after federal agents driving unmarked vehicles pursued him while he was taking his construction crew to a job site.
Separately, on July 14, Homan told reporters that the investigation needs to play out and that officers will be held accountable if they are found to have acted inappropriately or illegally.
The shootings come amid a Trump administration push to carry out its mass deportations agenda, which Trump campaigned on during his successful 2024 presidential campaign.
