ICE ERO Memo Limits Vehicle Stops to Trained Officers and Bars Pursuits, as Reported; Text Not Public

An internal memo from Marcos D. Charles, the executive associate director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), dated September 30, 2026, restricts vehicle stops to ERO officers who have completed specified training and says officers may not pursue vehicles that fail to pull over. The AP, ABC News, The Daily Wire and MS NOW each report that they obtained it. ABC says the memo “amends” the agency’s handbook for fugitive operations and “supersedes” earlier guidance; the AP says it replaces and amends directives from earlier this year, last year and 2018, without identifying them. MS NOW quotes the memo as requiring that “all officers on scene must have an agency-issued and activated body worn camera.” ICE called it a routine “guidance reminder.”

The text of the memo is not public. No outlet has posted the document, and every sentence above comes from an outlet’s description or quotation of it. The outlets differ on the pursuit sentence. ABC quotes it as barring “vehicle pursuits or PIT maneuvers for vehicles that fail to pull over”; the Daily Wire quotes it as barring “vehicle pursuits or vehicle maneuvers for vehicles that fail to pull over,” and adds that officers should instead gather vehicle and occupant information and direction of travel, “as instructed in the Fugitive Operations Handbook.” MS NOW quotes only “engage in vehicle pursuits.” Which wording is the memo’s, and what the memo defines as a “maneuver,” cannot be settled from the reporting.

The memo is dated after the Sept. 20 Austin shooting recorded in 2026-09-20–ice-agent-shoots-venezuelan-delivery-driver-austin-hsi-fbi-investigate, and before the Oct. 10 Houston-area strike followed in 2026-10-13–harris-county-da-teare-opens-criminal-investigation-ice-vehicle-strike-parra-hernandez. The July reversal of the earlier pause on traffic stops is in 2026-07-15–ice-halts-then-trump-reverses-traffic-stop-arrests. No officer in either incident is named here.