Immigration rights groups say ICE halting most vehicle stops "a very good first baby step"
Immigrant rights advocates in Chicago said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's move to halt most vehicle stops nationwide is "a very good first baby step," but believe much more needs to be done to obtain real change in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
Except in cases of serious criminal targets, ICE agents nationwide will temporarily stop pulling people over, multiple law enforcement sources told CBS News.
The directive comes after an ICE officer shot and killed 26-year-old Joha Sebastian Guerrero, a Colombian national who was in the country illegally in Maine.
The Department of Homeland Security said Guerrero "attempted to flee the scene" on Monday when ICE tried to stop him. "Fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon," DHS said in a statement.
While Durán Guerrero was not the target of an operation, ICE agents attempted to pull over the man's car while "conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal," DHS said.
Less than a week earlier, in Houston, ICE officers fatally shot Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. Agents pulled him over while looking for someone else.
The directive to halt most ICE vehicle stops means change for those who have been fighting for something to give in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
"It's a very good first baby step, and it is a baby step. No policy change is going to fix this right now," said Mark Fleming, acting litigation director for the National Immigrant Justice Center.
The change has not necessarily inspired confidence.
Chris Parente, an attorney who represents Marimar Martinez, a Chicago woman shot by Border Patrol agents during Operation Midway Blitz last fall, said much more is needed.
"What has to happen if we actually want real change is you're going to need prosecutions, not policies. These agents need to be held accountable and charged when they act unlawfully like they're doing," he said.
In Minnesota, two ICE agents are now facing charges in Hennepin County in separate incidents. Gregory Morgan Jr. faces assault charges for allegedly pointing a gun at two people in a vehicle on a Twin Cities highway while on duty in February. Christian Castro faces four counts of second-degree assault for allegedly shooting a man in the leg in north Minneapolis and then lying about the attack.
Meantime, Illinois State Police have launched an investigation into the ICE shooting that killed Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, an undocumented father, last September in Franklin Park.
