Donald Trump strongly criticized today the decision by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to suspend traffic stops following the deaths of two people killed by members of the agency in less than a week.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) temporarily halted traffic stops by the federal agency yesterday, one day after a Colombian man was shot and killed in Maine while driving his car. Last week, a Mexican man was killed in Texas while driving his truck.

“We cannot abandon one of ICE’s most important and effective tools in the fight against crime: TRAFFIC STOPS!” the U.S. president wrote this morning on his Truth Social platform.

“Once we do that, we will be playing exactly the game of criminals. The radical Left’s Dumocrats (a derogatory pun mocking Democrats by combining the words ‘Democrats’ and ‘dumb’) would like this to happen, but it will not happen under my presidency. ICE, act with sharpness, fairness and intelligence, and return to your very important work,” he continued.

Trump Calls for ICE Operations to Resume

Donald Trump’s immigration adviser, Tom Homan, confirmed yesterday during a briefing with reporters at the White House that a “temporary pause” had been implemented regarding traffic stops, while stressing that the method is effective and will return.

Tasked with carrying out the mass deportation campaign sought by the U.S. president, ICE agents—heavily armed and often wearing face coverings—have become the focus of intense criticism across the country over tactics considered aggressive. Their operations have also resulted in the deaths of two U.S. citizens who were shot by agents in Minneapolis in January.

Rights advocacy groups identified the victim of Monday’s shooting in Biddeford, Maine, as 26-year-old Juan Sebastian Guerrero, a Colombian delivery worker with a U.S. work permit who lived in the country with his wife and three-year-old daughter.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro described the death as a “murder.”

Regarding last week’s shooting incident in Texas, immigration authorities confirmed that 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado allegedly attempted to strike an ICE agent with his vehicle, a version of events disputed by several witnesses.