President Donald Trump holds a press conference at Beştepe Presidential Compound during the NATO Summit on July 8 in Ankara, Turkey.
President Donald Trump holds a press conference at Beştepe Presidential Compound during the NATO Summit on July 8 in Ankara, Turkey.
Chris McGrath/Getty Images

President Donald Trump was furious over the pause on most vehicle stops conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the blowback from his base, according to two sources familiar with the matter, as prominent MAGA voices suggested that the administration was weakening its immigration enforcement.

CNN reported Tuesday that ICE agents were directed to largely suspend vehicle stops until further notice, according to a source familiar with the guidance. White House border czar Tom Homan stressed Tuesday that the suspension on vehicle stops, with some exceptions, was a temporary measure following the ICE-involved shootings in Houston and Maine.

Senior Homeland Security officials have been assessing interim changes to operations on the heels of those fatal shootings but remain under pressure to deliver on Trump’s mass deportation agenda and the self-imposed goal of 2,000 arrests a day. The pause, even if brief, on most vehicle stops removed a critical tool toward that end.

Neither Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin nor Homan alerted Trump to the pause on traffic stops before imposing it, according to two people familiar with the chain of events.

Trump became furious after watching coverage of the temporary change in policy that suggested he was weakening his immigration enforcement. Early Wednesday, he ordered that it be overturned, posting on Truth Social that “The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch.”

CNN reached out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

Prominent figures in the MAGA base, including longtime Trump adviser Steve Bannon and conservative lawyer Mike Davis, have excoriated the decision to suspend traffic stops.

“You work for President Trump, you don’t work for Senate Democrats, you don’t work for Susan Collins,” Davis said of Mullin on Bannon’s “War Room” show Wednesday morning. “This guy needs to stop being a wimp, he needs to stop being weak, he needs to stop being stupid. If he’s not up to doing the job, get the hell out of the job and we’ll put someone there who can.”

The guidance has since been reversed, according to a White House official, marking the latest instance of whiplash for ICE agents as they try to ramp up arrests.

Mullin signaled Wednesday that he was aligned with Trump, posting an image of the president’s Truth Social post reversing the guidance and saying on X, “Our #1 goal is to keep our officers safe and get criminals OFF our streets. Illegal aliens will be arrested and deported wherever they are. If you are here illegally, LEAVE NOW.”

The guidance applied to agents who fall under Enforcement and Removal Operations, the branch within ICE charged with the arrest and deportation of undocumented immigrants, and imposed a pause on initiating stops, according to the source. Agents were directed to work with partner agencies to conduct a stop if executing a criminal warrant on an individual in a vehicle.

Trump’s administration ordered the pause after the fatal shootings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, prompted calls for independent investigations and reignited criticism of the agency. Both were killed during federal immigration enforcement operations, but neither man was the target of those operations, sources have said.

In the wake of the shootings, the Department of Homeland Security also pledged to “rapidly” deploy body cameras to officers nationally.

This story has been updated with additional developments and reporting.

CNN’s Kit Maher contributed to this report.