WASHINGTON, July 16 (Xinhua) -- White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin are on the same page about resuming Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) traffic stops.
"Vehicle stops are continuing. Verbal guidance has been given to all field offices across the country by the Department of Homeland Security," Leavitt told reporters at a White House press briefing.
"The president and the secretary of Homeland Security are on the same page that vehicle stops are a necessary tool that ICE agents need in order to continue their deportation campaign ...," she continued.
On Tuesday, ICE reportedly ordered its officers to temporarily halt traffic stops in the wake of two recent deadly shootings by federal agents, one in Texas and another in Maine. The incidents resulted in the deaths of a Mexican national and a Colombian national, neither of whom was the intended target.
Trump, however, quickly overturned the pause of ICE vehicle stops on Wednesday and wrote on Truth Social: "We CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.'s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!"
In a post on X on Wednesday, Mullin said "our #1 goal is to keep our officers safe and get criminals OFF our streets. Illegal aliens will be arrested and deported wherever they are," but he did not confirm whether traffic stops would continue.
In another post Wednesday, Mullin said that "President Trump and I are on the same page. We want our @ICEgov officers to have all options available to keep them safe while executing our mission of deporting as many illegal alien criminals from our country as possible."
At the press conference Thursday, Leavitt also said that over half of all ICE field agents now have body cameras, and the remainder of them will expect body cameras in 60 days, blaming the rollout delay on Democrats for shutting down the Department of Homeland Security.
ICE faced intense backlash after two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by federal officers during immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis in January. Since then, Democrats have repeatedly demanded that federal immigration agents wear body cameras. ■