Traffic Stops Resume as Third Migrant Death in a Week Prompts FBI Meth Claim in Houston Case

Since ICE's brief pause on vehicle stops took effect this week after fatal shootings in Houston and Biddeford, Maine, a third death has occurred in St. Augustine, Florida, and President Trump has ordered the tactic restarted.

The new detail in the Houston case comes from an FBI search warrant, which states investigators found bags containing a "white crystal-like substance" inside the van driven by Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the Mexican national shot and killed by ICE officers last Tuesday. The warrant says the substance "is consistent with methamphetamine," according to the Daily Wire. That finding has not been confirmed by lab testing in the sources reviewed, and no charges tied to the substance have been announced.

ICE's account, per the warrant, says officers were conducting an immigration enforcement operation and tried to stop a vehicle carrying four people, one of whom was their intended target. Araujo allegedly drove over a median to flee, and after officers relocated the vehicle and tried again, he "rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle" and "weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer," prompting the officer to fire in what ICE called self-defense.

The Department of Homeland Security later acknowledged that none of the four people in the van, including Araujo, was actually the person ICE was looking for. The three passengers, taken into custody, told the Washington Post they were on their way to a construction job when the shooting happened.

A third death, this one in Florida

A separate incident Tuesday in St. Augustine, Florida, has not been previously reported in this coverage. Florida Highway Patrol said ICE agents and Homeland Security Investigators approached a vehicle at a Wawa gas station on State Road 16 early Tuesday morning. Four people got out and ran. One of them ran into oncoming traffic and was struck and killed by a semi-truck, according to Breitbart. DHS confirmed the man was a 28-year-old Mexican national. The truck driver stopped and tried to help but could not save him.

A witness who was pulling into the gas station with her children described the moment to local station News 4 Jax: "The sounds are constantly replaying in my head of him getting hit." She said she prayed for the man as it happened.

DHS has not released details on what prompted the stop. Mark Baughman, a crime and safety expert who previously worked with ICE, told First Coast News the operation appeared to be an "enforcement removal operation" but cautioned that it's unclear whether the four people were construction workers waiting for a ride or were involved in something else. He said there needs to be "total transparency" about why agents were trying to contact them and what violations, if any, they were suspected of.

DHS has not yet answered that question publicly. Nothing in the available record establishes criminal conduct by the man who died in Florida. Two of the three deaths this week involve people whose only established connection to law enforcement's target was proximity, not confirmed wrongdoing. The third involves an unconfirmed drug allegation still under investigation.

Mullin's pause, then Trump's reversal

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin ordered ICE to temporarily halt vehicle stops after the Houston and Maine shootings, which border czar Tom Homan described as a "temporary pause" rather than a policy change, according to the Daily Signal. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was among the officials who pushed for the halt, Breitbart reported.

Trump reversed course within a day. "We CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.'s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!" he wrote on Truth Social, arguing that ending the tactic would let criminals exploit the gap. He also took a shot at "Radical Left Dumocrats" he said wanted the pause made permanent.

Mullin responded that DHS's "#1 goal is to keep our officers safe and get criminals OFF our streets," adding that illegal aliens "will be arrested and deported wherever they are." Multiple ICE agents told the Daily Wire they were relieved by the reversal, with one saying arrests had gotten "a lot harder" during the pause and another questioning why field offices weren't consulted before it was ordered in the first place.

What's still unresolved

Both the Houston and Maine shootings remain under investigation, according to the Daily Wire. No findings have been released on whether the officers' use of force was justified in either case. The Florida death is also under investigation by Florida Highway Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations, with DHS saying it will "provide an update when available."

Separately, ICE announced the arrest of five illegal immigrants Tuesday with prior convictions for crimes including first-degree murder, sexual exploitation of a minor, and drug trafficking, according to the Daily Signal, which cited a Harvard/Harris poll showing 80% of voters support deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have committed crimes. That poll doesn't speak to the traffic-stop tactic specifically, only to deportation of convicted criminals generally, and none of the three men killed this week has been shown in these sources to match that description.

The open question moving forward is whether ICE's own after-action reviews of the Houston and Maine shootings, once completed, will change the traffic-stop policy again, or whether Tuesday's reversal is final.