New ICE guidance sets tighter rules for vehicles stops, bans officers from high-speed chases, memo reveals

The new guidance comes as the Trump administration faces mounting criticism over a string of deadly incidents involving ICE officers. The agency downplayed the new measures, insisting they’re mere reminders and that current protocols will continue.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have been ordered not to engage in high-speed car chases and to make vehicle stops only if they have completed specific training, under new internal guidance issued after several people were shot in encounters with ICE.

A memo sent to officers in ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division warned they are not authorised to chase vehicles that fail to pull over under any circumstances.

Instead, officers should take down the vehicles’ information for further investigation, according to the memo signed by ICE’s executive associate director Marcos D. Charles and dated Wednesday.

This image made from ICE body camera footage shows an officer stopping Wilber Rafael Garces Perez on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Austin, Texas

The new guidance comes after ICE-initiated vehicle stops have repeatedly escalated when drivers have refused to cooperate or tried to flee. ICE agents have fired their guns during more than a dozen such encounters since last year, killing at least four people and wounding several others.

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