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U.S. immigration police (ICE) must continue their roadside checkpoints to fight illegal immigration, President Donald Trump stated on Wednesday, following the suspension of that practice after the deaths of two undocumented individuals.
A 26-year-old Colombian man was killed on Monday by gunfire from an ICE agent in the state of Maine, and last week another incident ended the life of a Mexican man who had lived for years in Houston, Texas.
In both cases, agents claim they opened fire because the individuals attempted to flee and used their vehicles to get away.
"WE CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.'s most important and effective tools against crime: TRAFFIC CHECKPOINTS!" Trump affirmed on his Truth Social platform.
"The Radical Left 'Democrat' would like for this to happen, but it will not happen on my watch," he added, using a derogatory expression to refer to the Democratic opposition.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, announced it was suspending those road and street checkpoints in light of the public outcry sparked by those two deaths.
The Mexican government, which states that 17 of its nationals have died due to detention and deportation operations since Trump returned to power in 2025, announced last week that it is filing criminal complaints in the United States against the government.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro described the death of the Colombian man in Maine as a "murder."
The DHS has announced internal investigations into those cases.
"I expect those investigations to be conducted in the same manner as other investigations of that type, and that necessarily implies working with state and local police," stated Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday, during a Senate confirmation hearing.
Numerous incidents involving ICE and border police have occurred in sanctuary states, which are places where local authorities do not cooperate with the federal government in these operations against illegal immigration.
"The men and women of ICE are doing a GREAT job, work that must be done. CRIME IS WAY DOWN IN THE UNITED STATES, in many cases with numbers not seen in decades," Trump claimed in his message.
The Democratic opposition believes that ICE is overstepping its duties and that its operations have also harmed legal immigrants.
Mass raids against undocumented immigrants have led to the deaths not only of the undocumented but also of U.S. citizens who oppose the operations.
Last January, two activists, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, died in Minneapolis, which already prompted a change in ICE's strategy.
[Publicidad]