ICE issues new guidance banning high-speed chases after shootings

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued an internal memo banning high-speed car chases and restricting traffic stops to officers who have completed specific training. The September 30, 2026, directive follows a series of controversial shootings, including the deaths of Renee Good, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, and Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero. While President Donald Trump previously resisted limits on traffic stops, the new rules mandate active body cameras and sirens, though ICE officials downplay the memo as a routine reminder.

Ban on vehicle pursuits

• ▪U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement executive associate director Marcos D. Charles signed an internal memo dated September 30, 2026, issuing new guidance that bans officers from engaging in high-speed car chases
• ▪Instead of pursuing fleeing vehicles, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are instructed to record the vehicle's information for subsequent investigation

Recent shootings during vehicle encounters

• ▪U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have fired their weapons in more than a dozen vehicle encounters since 2025, killing at least four people and wounding several others
• ▪U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas, and Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, in separate incidents in July 2026
• ▪A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and wounded Venezuelan national Wilber Rafael Garces Perez during a vehicle pursuit in Austin, Texas, in September 2026
• ▪U.S. citizen Renee Good was fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, earlier in 2026, prompting her family to file two civil lawsuits on October 1, 2026

President Trump's directives

• ▪President Donald Trump ultimately overturned the Department of Homeland Security's decision to pause most vehicle stops conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
• ▪President Donald Trump publicly directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to continue traffic stops, calling them an important and effective crime-fighting tool

Courtroom testimony on Austin shooting

• ▪Courtroom testimony from October 1, 2026, revealed that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot Wilber Rafael Garces Perez in September 2026 was not wearing a body camera
• ▪Courtroom testimony revealed that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who had a body-worn camera turned it off during the pursuit of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez