ICE just suspended nearly all vehicle stops nationwide after a fatal shooting rocked Biddeford, Maine.
Then a Mexican national bolted from a Florida gas station and ran straight into a semi truck.
What Donald Trump did to that pause by Wednesday morning left his own border czar explaining himself on Fox News.
Third Fatal ICE Encounter in a Week Forced a Nationwide Pause
A 28-year-old Mexican national was killed early Tuesday in St. Augustine, Florida.
He was one of four people who bolted on foot when ICE and Homeland Security Investigations agents approached their vehicle at a gas station.
He sprinted across State Road 16 into the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer.
The truck driver stopped immediately and tried to save him, but he died at the scene.
It was the third death tied to a federal immigration encounter in a single week.
An ICE officer had already shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on July 7.
Agents had been pursuing a different suspect during that stop.
A day before the Florida death, an ICE officer shot and killed Colombian national Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine.
DHS said he tried to flee in his vehicle and the officer feared for his safety.
Hours after the Florida death, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin ordered ICE to halt most vehicle stops across the country.
Border czar Tom Homan defended the move on Fox News, calling it "not a policy change, it's a temporary pause."
Homan argued agents could still make arrests before a target ever reached his car, waiting for him at his front door or his destination instead.
He also claimed vehicle assaults on federal agents were up more than 3,400 percent since the current wave of enforcement began.
Read that number again.
That's not a talking point, that's agents getting run at with two-ton weapons on a near-daily basis, and it's the number Homan says justified the pause in the first place.
Democrats saw an opening instead of an explanation.
Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree accused Homan of dismissing two deaths as a footnote.
Texas Rep. Greg Casar claimed the pattern proved the entire deportation operation puts Americans at risk.
Neither mentioned that all three men ran instead of stopping for federal agents.
Trump Told ICE the Traffic Stop Is Not Up for Negotiation
The pause lasted about one day.
President Trump posted on Truth Social Wednesday morning that ICE would resume vehicle stops immediately.
He called the tactic "one of ICE's most important and effective crime fighting tools."
Abandoning it, he argued, would only hand criminals an easier path to slip away from agents.
He tied the crisis to mass entry under Joe Biden, citing a figure near 25 million people crossing the border unchecked.
He told agents to use good judgment and get back on the road.
He closed by thanking ICE officers for their work.
One senior ICE source told Fox News the reversal was blunt but necessary.
DHS reposted Trump's statement within the hour, and vehicle stops were back on by Wednesday afternoon.
The Pattern Behind All Three Deaths
Every man in this story made the same choice.
Salgado Araujo drove at an officer instead of stopping.
Durán Guerrero tried to flee in his car instead of stopping.
The St. Augustine man ran into six lanes of traffic instead of stopping.
None of them were killed for existing in America illegally.
Homan said it plainly: bad things happen when people don't comply with law enforcement.
Democrats want the public focused on ICE's tactics.
Trump wants the public focused on the fact that compliance ends every one of these stories peacefully.
He didn't leave that argument to his border czar, either.
He put his name on it, in his own words, on his own account, within twenty-four hours.
Sources:
- Peter Pinedo, "Trump orders DHS to reverse pause on ICE immigration vehicle stops," Fox News, July 15, 2026.
- Louis Casiano, "Man fleeing ICE agents killed by tractor-trailer in St. Augustine," Fox News, July 14, 2026.
- Kimberly Hayek, "Man Fleeing ICE Agents Struck, Killed by Semi-Truck in Florida," The Epoch Times, July 14, 2026.
- Breitbart News, "Homan: There's 'Temporary Pause' for Most ICE Vehicle Stops, We Can Arrest Before They Get Into Vehicle," Breitbart, July 14, 2026.