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ICE should do traffic stops despite recent shootings, Trump says, seeming to oppose new suspension
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency should continue vehicle stops after recent fatal shootings, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, seeming to oppose a new suspension of the practice used as part of his immigration crackdown.
ICE is “doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done,” Trump wrote on his social media site.
The Republican president said that to remove criminals he claims were let into the country under the previous Democratic administration “we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” Trump said, “Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”
Trump administration officials have told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to suspend most vehicle stops after two deadly shootings within a week, people familiar with the decision said Tuesday.
The suspension was ordered after an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian driver Monday in Maine and a week after another officer shot and killed a motorist in Houston, renewing criticism of the agency’s enforcement tactics that were widely condemned last winter after the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.
In Florida on Tuesday, a third man in roughly a week died during an encounter with immigration officers. This time, a 28-year-old man was killed after he was hit by a tractor trailer while running from immigration and other federal officers, authorities said.
It’s a narrative that has been repeated again and again since the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown began, with federal officers confronting drivers and then saying they opened fire when the drivers’ vehicles became a danger. That’s despite decades of warnings from policing experts that shooting into moving cars presents a danger of its own and should almost always be avoided.
There have been at least 10 deaths involving encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched his deportation campaign. At least four of those deaths involved people in vehicles, including the one last week in Houston, a trend so troubling that U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Tuesday that she had urged Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin “to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops.”
John Sandweg, who was acting director at ICE, which is part of DHS, during President Barack Obama’s Democratic administration, estimated recently that there have been roughly 18 traffic stop shootings during the Trump immigration crackdown.
The office of Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, was told by DHS that ICE was suspending traffic stops, office spokesperson Matthew Felling said.
ICE, which has been under pressure to beef up arrest and deportation numbers, often says people it’s trying to arrest are increasingly resistant to leaving their homes. ICE officers blame immigration advocates who advise immigrants to stay in their homes unless ICE produces a warrant signed by an independent judge instead of the administrative warrants the agency generally uses that are signed by another ICE officer. So, ICE officers say, they’re forced to find other areas in which to make arrests.
Shooting angers Maine
Hundreds of people in Maine protested Tuesday over the fatal shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national. Advocacy groups said Guerrero, who had a wife and a young daughter, was authorized to work in the United States.
DHS said Monday that an officer, “fearing for public safety,” shot and killed Durán Guerrero while officers were watching the home of someone they believed was in the U.S. illegally and facing a final order of removal from the country. It said in a post on X that when ICE tried to stop a car driven by someone who came from the home, the person attempted to flee in the vehicle and the officer fired.
That was a shift from how King earlier described the encounter, when he said Mullin told him the officer opened fire after the man tried to use his vehicle as a weapon. King said Mullin told him the officers were trying to serve an arrest warrant but not for the man who was shot.
In a scathing post on X, outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the shooting a targeted killing “at the hands of the U.S. government.”
Petro, who has openly quarreled with Trump, urged Trump to provide an explanation and accused ICE officers of treating Durán Guerrero as “an inferior being without rights.”
In Wednesday’s social media post, Trump told ICE to be “judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job.”
Maine’s congressional delegation on Tuesday demanded a “comprehensive, transparent, and expedited investigation.”
Questions surround the shooting
Photos showed bullet holes in Durán Guerrero’s car windshield, but the officers involved in the shooting didn’t have body cameras, leaving many questions. Among them are how close the officer was to the vehicle when shooting, whether officers told Durán Guerrero to stop and why ICE believes he had put the public in danger.
Border czar Tom Homan told reporters Tuesday that the investigation needs to play out and that officers will be held accountable if they are found to have acted inappropriately or illegally.
Maine’s attorney general’s office, which said it is working with federal agencies to investigate, said initial statements suggest the driver was trying to flee in the direction of the officer, whose name hasn’t been released and who was placed on leave.
Collins said Mullin told her the DHS inspector general is investigating in cooperation with the FBI.
Democrats seeking to unseat Collins in November have sought to connect her with ICE’s methods, which have drawn public scrutiny and derision. Collins later said in a statement that although ICE needs to improve, eliminating the agency would make the nation less safe.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat who is vying for Collins’ seat, called the ICE officers at the shooting “thugs” during a vigil Tuesday in Lewiston.
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Whittle contributed from Biddeford, Maine; Brook from New Orleans; and Sisak from New York.
The Moon crosses in front of the Sun during a total solar eclipse at Lake Monroe on April 08, 2024 in Indiana, United States.
Edward M. Pio Roda/Getty Images
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Edward M. Pio Roda/Getty Images
People throughout Europe and parts of the U.S. will be treated to a chance to see a solar eclipse on Wednesday.
People in Iceland, Greenland, northern Russia, Spain, and a part of Portugal will see a total eclipse, according to astronomers. That’s when the moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, fully blocking the Sun’s face. NASA says northern parts of the United States, including from Alaska to North Carolina, will see a partial solar eclipse.
During a partial solar eclipse, the moon passes between the sun and Earth, but the celestial bodies are not perfectly aligned. Because only parts of the sun are obscured, the sun appears as a crescent shape.
The partial eclipse is expected to begin around 1:17 p.m. ET in Washington, D.C. and have 4% coverage, according to NASA. That means up to 4 percent of the sun will be covered by the moon. In Reykjavík, Iceland, the total eclipse will begin at 5:48 p.m. local time , and in León, Spain, totality will begin at 8:28 p.m and last for two minutes. This will be the first solar eclipse visible from Spain’s mainland since 1905, according to the European Space Agency.
For those who plan to watch either the total or partial eclipse, special equipment such as eclipse glasses or handheld viewers with special filters will be necessary to protect one’s eyes. Regular sunglasses will not be effective for eye protection, even during a partial eclipse. Looking at the sun, even if for a short time, can cause significant eye damage, including burns and even permanent vision loss, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
While the eclipse will give skywatchers a chance to safely marvel at the rare phenomena, some scientists will use it as an opportunity to better understand the sun. NASA says it will have teams using scientific balloons and a high-altitude jet to study how the sky when darkened for a short period of time impacts the Earth’s atmosphere.
“From our unique perspective on Earth during a total solar eclipse, scientists can study the Sun’s corona in a way we can’t from anywhere else in the solar system,” Kelly Korreck, eclipse program manager for NASA, said in a statement.
The next partial solar eclipse will be visible across parts of the U.S. on Aug. 2, 2027 – with totality visible from Spain, the Middle East and parts of North Africa. A total solar eclipse will be visible across parts of the contiguous U.S. on Aug. 23, 2044.
Utah wildfire response continues despite loss of helicopter crew, with containment standing at 24 percent.
Published On 9 Aug 2026
A pilot and one crew member have been confirmed dead after their firefighting helicopter crashed while battling a massive wildfire in central Utah.
The Sikorsky S-64 ‘Skycrane’, operated by Helicopter Transport Services under contract with the United States Forest Service, went down about 10am local time on Friday (16:00 GMT) near Richfield, in the Three Creeks Reservoir area southwest of the city, close to the southeastern edge of the Widemouth 2 fire.
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The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) confirmed the deaths on Saturday, more than 24 hours after the crash, saying the two crew members were “fatally injured” and extended its “condolences to the friends and family of the deceased”.
In a situation report, the NIFC said extreme fire conditions and steep terrain had kept rescue teams from reaching the wreckage. The bodies were recovered on Saturday, but the names of the deceased have not been released.
The NIFC has issued evacuations for residents in the area and imposed road closures.
Deputy incident commander Tyler Hecht said on Friday that crews took a “tactical pause” to regroup after the crash before resuming their firefighting work.
“It’s not going to change how we operate,” Hecht said. “We’re going to continue to fight fire and utilize aircraft to support our firefighters on the ground.”
Utah Governor Spencer Cox called wildland firefighting “among the most dangerous jobs in the world” and asked residents to keep the crew “in your prayers”.
The Utah Highway Patrol organised a procession Saturday evening to escort the remains of the “fallen heroes”.
The Widemouth 2 fire ignited from a lightning strike in Fishlake National Forest on July 27 and has since burned more than 111,000 acres (45,000 hectares), putting it on pace to become Utah’s largest wildfire this year.
Officials listed containment at 24 percent on Saturday, with extreme fire behaviour – including crowning and long-range spotting – still threatening nearby communities.
This is Utah’s second fatal wildfire incident this summer. Three firefighters died in June while battling the Knowles and Gore fires near the Colorado border. A fourth firefighter later died from injuries sustained in the incident.
Brittany Apgar (from left), Maggie Foxx and Mo’ne Davis, of the Los Angeles Queens, joke around in the dugout prior to the start of the Women’s Pro Baseball League’s inaugural game in Springfield, Ill., on Saturday, Aug. 1.
Jaclyn Licht for NPR
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Jaclyn Licht for NPR
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Three hours before game time, hundreds of fans swarmed the construction-lined, rain-soaked parking lot of Springfield’s Robin Roberts Stadium. Some lived down the road; most hailed from across the country, and some had come from as far as away as South Korea and Australia.
Carol and Mike Studer, the grandparents of the New York Heights’ first baseman London Studer, worried the weather would postpone London’s start against the Los Angeles Queens and they’d miss their flight the next morning. One hour later, security parted the gates.
“Am I the very first inside?” yelled a teenage girl holding a baseball mitt as she rushed through a balloon-adorned entrance to be greeted by a custom bobblehead of Queens outfielder Mo’ne Davis.
Staff quietly hurried to tape falling signage to the walls, troubleshoot the jumbotron and cook burgers and hot dogs as rain seeped through the grated ceilings of the exterior walkways. Fans, meanwhile, made a beeline for the merch booth; within hours, sales were capped at two items per fan to accommodate demand. Underneath translucent ponchos, fans donned hats, sweatshirts and T-shirts in support of the league’s four teams: the Queens, the Heights, the Boston Hunters and the San Francisco Firebells. Team loyalty was largely arbitrary, though; most said they were simply happy to support the athletes and to be present to witness the league’s inaugural game.
Players with the Boston Hunters and the San Francisco Firebells assist the grounds crew in rolling up the infield tarp prior to the start of the WPBL’s inaugural game on Saturday, Aug. 1.
Jaclyn Licht for NPR
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Sabrina Robinson, the Boston Hunters’ first baseman, fixes her hair in her hotel room before going out with her fellow players in the Women’s Pro Baseball League on Thursday, July 30.
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Robinson (center) fist bumps her teammates at the conclusion of a preseason scrimmage prior to the WPBL’s opening weekend on Thursday, July 30, in Springfield, Ill.
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The San Francisco Firebells get in some batting practice at the University of Illinois, Springfield’s training field before the WPBL’s inaugural weekend on Thursday, July 30.
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San Francisco Firebells coach Matt Williams (from left), second baseman Amanda Gianelloni, catcher Samantha Gutierrez and left fielder Skylar Kaplan in the dugout prior to their game on Sunday, Aug. 2.
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Fans from Delaware drove 1,700 miles to see Mo’ne Davis play in the WPBL’s inaugural game in Springfield, Ill., on Saturday, Aug. 1.
Jaclyn Licht for NPR
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WPBL teams’ captains and the league’s commissioner, Justine Siegal, pass a torch to youth representatives of Baseball For All, a gender equity initiative to support girls in baseball, in Springfield, Ill., on Saturday, Aug. 1.
Jaclyn Licht for NPR
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Enter the players. The Hunters and Firebells, who would play the following day, wandered the grounds in full uniform. Many were greeted with hugs by their parents and siblings, who’d traveled from across the U.S. and from 11 different countries to witness their daughters and sisters play professionally for the first time. Girls and boys blocked the players’ paths to ask for autographs, beaming at their parents as they showed off their newly signed T-shirts, mitts and baseballs.
The weekend marked the start of the Women’s Pro Baseball League’s inaugural season. Its four host cities — Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York — were chosen for their history of sports loyalty and market size, yet the opening season will run for six weeks in the geographically central location of Springfield, Ill.
A stray ball lands near Springfield’s corn fields during preseason practice on Thursday, July 30.
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Rebecca Buchanan, of Springfield, Ill., dons a custom eye patch at a WPBL game at Robin Roberts Stadium on Sunday, Aug. 2.
Jaclyn Licht for NPR
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New York Heights players and fans prior to the start of the WPBL’s inaugural game on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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A concessions stand worker at Springfield’s Robin Roberts Stadium awaits her first customers on WPBL’s opening day.
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Maybelle the Mascot, designed in honor of veteran baseball player Maybelle Blair, entertains the crowd between innings of the WPBL’s opening game on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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Kelsie Whitmore (right), a pitcher for the San Francisco Firebells and the league’s No. 1 draft pick, guides veteran baseball player Maybelle Blair, 99, off the field after the first pitch ceremony on the WPBL’s opening day.
Jaclyn Licht for NPR
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Maybelle Blair, a veteran of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, a professional women’s baseball league that was founded in 1943 and ran for 12 seasons, grips a baseball prior to throwing out the first pitch at the WPBL’s inaugural game in Springfield, Ill., on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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Fans behind home plate during opening day ceremonies on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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The WPBL is the fifth professional women’s baseball league in U.S. history, but Queens’ third baseman Ashton Lansdell says, “We hope it’s the fifth and the last.”
Many of those signed to the WPBL began playing as young as 4 years old, and for many, their baseball trajectories stalled as they came of age and were told they were not allowed to compete alongside boys. But many of the players said the hurdle only fueled their determination to pursue the sport through other avenues.
Baseball For All, a nonprofit founded by WPBL Commissioner Justine Siegal, has supported young women in finding opportunities for organized play in their communities, schools and universities. Many compete in annual competitions, including the Women’s Baseball World Cup, and have had stints in regional and seasonal men’s leagues. A select few, including Lansdell, Firebells pitcher Kelsie Whitmore and Heights catcher Denae Benites, have even found success in the viral Banana Ball league playing for teams like the Savannah Bananas.
Most players, though, are juggling university studies or moonlight as bartenders, firefighters and architects to support their athletic dreams.
While opportunities for women’s baseball have grown in recent years, this is the first time that these women will have a chance to compete and play together for an extended period of time. “I’ve been practicing so long on my own,” said Boston’s first baseman, Sabrina Robinson, during preseason training. “It’s so different finally playing with other [professionals] in the same place now.”
Sabrina Robinson, first basemen for the Boston Hunters, dances between innings to rile up the crowd during her team’s first game in the Women’s Pro Baseball League on Sunday, Aug. 2.
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A fan’s rain-soaked scorecard on the WPBL’s opening day.
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A young fan waves his shirt in the stands at Springfield’s Robin Roberts Stadium on the WPBL’s opening weekend.
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One of the LA Queens’ players signs autographs for fans in the crowd during the game between the San Francisco Firebells and the Boston Hunters on Sunday, Aug. 2.
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The first game of the Women’s Professional Baseball League, hosted at Springfield’s Robin Roberts Stadium. The 5,200-seat stadium sold out for opening day.
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A young fan dons a Rockford Peaches uniform — a nod to one of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League’s teams that inspired the 1992 film A League of Their Own — at opening day on Saturday, Aug. 1.
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As the rain subsided, the grounds crew scrambled to prepare the field. Players stepped in to help roll up the tarp covering the field as the sold-out crowd settled into damp seats.
Meanwhile, on the third base line, 3-year-old Lenore Wooten took in the view of the field. “She’ll never know this was never not a thing,” said her mother, Jess.
Jaclyn Licht is a freelance photographer based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Find more of her work on her website, JaclynLicht.com, or on Instagram, at @shwaclyn.
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