By admin 
After two fatal shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in as many weeks, the agency will reportedly refrain, effective immediately, from conducting almost any traffic stops nationwide. Today I’ll explain how we got here—and whether this new policy will save lives.
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Rewind. What happened in those two cases?
Both involved people in cars. In Houston last week, ICE agents stopped Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican father of three who was driving a van to work. On Monday, agents in the small town of Biddeford, Maine, stopped a driver officials have identified as Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian authorized to work in the U.S. Both men ended up dead from bullet wounds. Renee Good, a Minneapolis woman an ICE agent killed in January, was also shot while behind the wheel. Immigration agents have smashed car windows and injured drivers in other cases, too.
So halting traffic stops … sounds like a good thing?
It certainly makes sense. It’s worth noting, though, that ICE has also defended the shootings. The agency claims that Araujo tried to run over an agent and that Durán Guerrero tried to flee. But ICE has provided no proof, and in Araujo’s case, eyewitnesses say the agency is lying about what happened.
Is this halt a tacit admission that ICE agents are poorly trained?
The optics are hard to ignore. ICE slashed its training requirements as the Trump administration pushed to increase deportations. It also launched a massive recruiting blitz that has sometimes resulted in porous vetting, as Slate’s Laura Jedeed discovered when ICE offered her a job after she skipped several screening steps. The traffic-stop halt is reportedly set to last until Donald Trump’s Homeland Security secretary approves new guidance, which seems like proof that what agents currently get isn’t enough. Police officers, for example, are often trained not to shoot at moving cars.
You said “almost any traffic stops.” What are the exceptions?
ICE is being pretty tight-lipped. But according to the Daily Wire, a conservative outlet that first reported the policy change, the prohibition on pulling suspects over doesn’t apply if agents have a criminal warrant.
Will this change save lives?
It’s hard to say. Traffic stops are a big way ICE has been detaining people, and it stands to reason that more of those encounters could’ve turned fatal. But while Trump sometimes retreats in the face of pushback, the retreats don’t always last. Not every death involving ICE is a shooting, either; according to the Miami Herald, a man fleeing immigration agents was accidentally hit and killed by a tractor trailer in St. Augustine, Florida, this morning. Halting traffic stops also won’t do anything to help detainees already in ICE custody, whose death rate has spiked since Trump returned to office.
Maine’s Senate race has been in the news a lot. Is the latest ICE shooting becoming an issue there?
It seems so. Angry Mainers are protesting Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican seeking a sixth term this fall. Collins says she has encouraged ICE “to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops,” wants a “full and impartial” investigation of the Biddeford shooting, and thinks agents should wear body cameras. (In both the Araujo and Durán Guerrero cases, they weren’t.) But Collins also voted just last month to give immigration agencies $70 billion without significant reform strings attached, which Democrats vying to challenge her are criticizing. So while Trump’s ICE can be chastened, we’ve yet to see whether congressional Republicans can change it for the better.
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OK, you’re officially caught up on some heavy news. To help recenter yourself, might I suggest:
A life lesson America needs to learn: If you’re missing Erling Haaland after Norway’s World Cup exit, it’s worth revisiting this conversation Slate’s Aymann Ismail had with professor and author Brad Stulberg about what Haaland can teach us about the importance of fun in sports.
The perfect summer pie: If you like to bake, it’s an ideal time to give this dessert a try. We know baking a pie from scratch is a tall order for a weekday, but save this recipe for when you have more time this weekend.
Some wordplay to end the day: Take a quick break with Slate’s Pears game, which challenges you to make as many words out of one combination of letters as you can. Today’s puzzle has six rounds. Can you find both of the longest words?
A pasta PSA: After a yearslong hiatus, Olive Garden is selling 10,000 Never-Ending Pasta Passes on Thursday, entitling buyers to 13 weeks of unlimited pasta, soup, salad, and breadsticks. Back in 2018, Slate interviewed an Olive Garden superfan about how she made the most of the chain’s coveted promotion, and she has some advice for pass holders: “Preferably go multiple times a day, every day.”
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That’s all for today. Enjoy your night, and see you tomorrow!