FRANCE PERSPECTIVE

Paris, July 16, 2026. The French media are reconstructing with precision the chronology of a presidential backtrack deemed revealing. On Tuesday, July 14, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) suspended "most" of the ICE's roadside checks, a day after the shooting death of Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian killed in Biddeford, Maine, and a week after the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican shot in Houston, Texas. In both cases, an ICE spokesperson cited a vehicle fleeing and an agent "fearing for public safety," a version contested by the victims' families.

The next day, on Wednesday, Donald Trump publicly criticized this decision on Truth Social: "We cannot give up one of ICE's most important and effective tools in fighting crime: ROADSIDE CHECKS!" He added that "radical left Democrats would love for this to happen, but it won't happen under my presidency" and urged the agency to "get back to its important work." His immigration advisor, Tom Homan, had assured Fox News that it was "a brief pause," with the method remaining "effective" and set to be reinstated.

The French press also relayed political reactions: Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins called for an end to "non-urgent" checks and regretted the lack of a body camera on the shooting agent; Colombian President Gustavo Petro qualified the death of his compatriot as "murder" on X. The No Kings coalition denounced "a new appalling manifestation of the administration's authoritarian drift" under the leadership of Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Rallies took place from Los Angeles to Boston, as well as in Scarborough, near Biddeford, behind a banner reading "enough killings." A New York Times article cited by RFI reported more than twenty people targeted by gunfire, including six fatalities, since Trump's return to the White House.