The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) ordered the temporary suspension of most of the vehicle checkpoints used in immigration operations in the country, after the shootings in which immigrants Joan Sebastián Guerrero, in Maine, and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, in Texas, died.

According to CBS News, which cites several law enforcement sources familiar with the decision, the instruction has already been communicated to officers and will remain in effect while the agency beefs up training on vehicle stop tactics. The suspension only contemplates exceptions in cases related to people considered highly dangerous.

Meanwhile, Republican Senator Susan Collins revealed that she directly requested Secretary Markwayne Mullin to stop vehicle arrests that do not represent an emergency while the death of Joan Sebastián Guerrero is clarified. “While the investigation into the Biddeford shooting is not yet complete, it raises enough critical questions that I asked you to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops,” he said.

The cases that led to the change of strategy

The announcement comes just days after two operations that unleashed strong questions against ICE.

In Biddeford, Maine, Joan Sebastián Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian, died after being shot during an attempted arrest. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the young man was not the main target of the investigation, but agents attempted to stop the vehicle in which he was traveling while monitoring the last known address of another immigrant with a deportation order.

Six days earlier, in Houston, Texas, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican who had been living in the United States for more than 35 years, died after ICE agents opened fire on his truck during an operation in which they were searching for another person.

Criticism of ICE grows

The two cases have sparked calls for greater transparency. Maine Independent Senator Angus King called for an investigation outside of the federal government.

"I want a full, fair, open and transparent investigation. The people of Maine will not accept an investigation led solely by ICE or the FBI," he told CBS News.

The ICE decision represents one of the most relevant operational changes since the beginning of the current immigration offensive of the Donald Trump administration, since this type of checkpoints had become one of the main strategies to locate and detain immigrants outside their homes or workplaces.