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The Trump administration has again walked back a decision to allow all Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to pull vehicles over for traffic stops, reversing course two months after initially imposing the ban and then doing away with it.
A leaked ICE memo issued Wednesday and obtained by the Washington Examiner on Thursday states that previous direction issued in July and August has been replaced with a new policy that says only officers who have completed five specific ICE training courses may conduct traditional traffic stops and high-risk or felony vehicle stops.
Under the new requirements, officers must complete the Fugitive Operations Training Program; Advanced Field Operations Training Program; Basic Immigration Enforcement Training Program; Special Response Team Basic Operator Course; ICE vehicle training provided by an instructor who graduated from the Vehicle Stop Instructor Training course; and any future agency-provided training.
New hires who have only completed one training program may be on site at traffic stops in a “support” capacity and are “not permitted to be the driver of a primary or secondary vehicle conducting the traffic stop,” the memo says.
The memo states that “under no circumstances are [Enforcement and Removal Operations officers] authorized to engage in vehicle pursuits or PIT maneuvers for vehicles that fail to pull over.” Instead, officers should document vehicle information and the direction it is headed for further investigation.
Drivers are allowed to “pin” a vehicle when it is for the safety of the suspect vehicle and its occupants, the ICE officers involved in the pursuit, or other motorists on the road. Pinning is defined as “using a vehicle or physical barrier to trap or stop a car.” Only officers who have completed the Special Response Team Basic Operator Course, ICE Vehicle Stop training provided by an instructor who graduated from the Vehicle Stop Instructor Training course, and any future agency-provided course may pin vehicles.
Tire deflation devices may be used to stop a vehicle from fleeing ICE when the fleeing vehicle, ICE officers, or public are at risk. Officers must have completed ICE Vehicle Stop training to be cleared for this type of response.
Thousands of ICE officers were caught in a disagreement between President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in mid-July over ICE’s ability to conduct traffic stops.
In the wake of two ICE-involved fatal shootings of illegal immigrants in Texas and Maine in one week, Mullin directed ICE to stop pursuing vehicles when attempting to make arrests.
Less than 24 hours later, Trump publicly undercut Mullin and demanded the traffic stops continue, stating in a Truth Social post on Wednesday morning that “we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!”
This latest iteration of traffic stop guidance comes as thousands of new hires emerge from the academy and hit the street. The Washington Examiner previously reported that recruits were being put onto the street before government background checks had been completed in the Trump administration’s rush to speed up deportations.
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The memo also instructs ICE’s deportation officers who are deployed to traffic stops to have an agency-issued body camera activated. Cameras were deployed to an unspecified number of ICE personnel following outcry from lawmakers after the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizen activists in Minneapolis in January.
However, in recent ICE-involved shootings, officers either have not had the body cameras turned on or not had cameras to record events.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
