U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a new directive to officers this week requiring them to be trained in certain courses in order to conduct vehicle stops or pin a vehicle when making immigration enforcement arrests. The directive also bars officers from engaging in vehicle pursuits when targets do not pull over.

The internal memo, issued Wednesday and obtained by MS NOW, says only Enforcement and Removal Operations officers who have successfully completed certain training can conduct “traditional vehicle stops, and call-back vehicle stops commonly known as high-risk felony vehicle stops.”

The ERO officers, who are responsible for immigration arrests and deportations, have to finish one of six training courses. The directives are “effective immediately,” according to the memo.

The memo issued by Marcos Charles, head of the ERO division, also makes clear “all officers on scene must have an agency-issued and activated body worn camera.” It orders field directors to ensure vehicles used in such stops are equipped with sirens and lights — a notable change as cars typically used by ICE officers do not have lights and sirens.

The guidance also says that “under no circumstances” are officers authorized to “engage in vehicle pursuits” if vehicles do not pull over. ICE officers who do not successfully finish the related training courses can “participate only in a support capacity” and cannot be the driver during a vehicle stop, according to the memo.

During President Donald Trump’s second term, there have been multiple instances of ICE officers shooting and, in some cases, killing people in vehicles while conducting enforcement operations. Last month, an ICE officer shot a Venezuelan delivery driver during a vehicle stop. Over the summer, federal immigration agents shot and killed two people in vehicles in separate incidents in Texas and Maine.

Deborah Fleischaker, who served as ICE’s former acting chief of staff under President Joe Biden, said ICE is attempting to “present a veneer” of responsibility in its new guidelines.

“Given their overreach, I’ll take any move toward responsibleness, although it’s not nearly enough,” she said. Fleischaker added that the directive “sets up some small restrictions on vehicle stops and that’s a good thing.”

“They’re trying to make a nominal course correction without slowing down arrests,” Fleischaker said. “It shouldn’t have taken everything that’s come before to get us to this place.”

Earlier this summer, the Department of Homeland Security paused most vehicle stops after several fatal ICE shootings, though Trump quickly reversed the order.

MS NOW has reached out to DHS and the White House for comment.

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