Lack of body cameras on ICE agents fuels more uncertainty over fatal shootings

By Priscilla Alvarez, Holmes Lybrand, Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — After federal immigration agents fatally shot two US citizens this January, the then-secretary of the Department of Homeland Security pledged to “rapidly” deploy body cameras to officers nationally.

“As funding is available, the body camera program will be expanded nationwide,” Kristi Noem wrote on social media on February 2. “We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country.”

But over five months later, the distribution of those body-worn cameras is still ongoing – and notably hadn’t reached the officers involved in fatal shootings in Houston and in Maine this past week. Neither victim was the intended target of the immigrant enforcement operations, officials have said.

The lack of body cameras for these Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raises questions as to the pace and status of that national effort. In the meantime, the lack of first-hand video from federal officers – combined with DHS’ recent history of false statements – has deepened skepticism of the government’s narrative in these fatal shootings.

“They’ve got tons of money. Why they don’t have body cams I think is a very fair question,” Sen. Angus King of Maine told CNN on Monday night. “That would resolve this kind of factual issue that we’re going to be trying to resolve over the next several weeks here in Maine.”

The shootings this week underscore the years-long push for body cameras, both from the public and the officers themselves. Spurred by the 2014 police shooting and ensuing unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, police forces across the country have adopted and mandated the use of body cameras, a move law enforcement experts say helps ensure safe and accountable policing.

“Law enforcement officers across the country tell me body cameras actually do them a service when it comes to controversial cases,” CNN senior correspondent and former FBI agent Josh Campbell said.

Federal agencies, however, have been slow to adopt such devices, and the Trump administration has reversed itself on whether they are needed.

Agents were not wearing cameras

The use of body cameras has largely garnered bipartisan agreement, particularly amid aggressive confrontations between federal agents and members of the public over the last year.

After the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this year, Noem pledged to expand the body camera program and deploy the equipment to officers nationwide. The fiscal year 2026 funding for DHS allocates $20 million for the “procurement, deployment and operations” of body cameras for agents and officers.

Noem was fired in March and replaced later that month by former Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. Despite the change in leadership, Homeland Security officials have repeatedly told lawmakers that body cameras would be distributed across the country.

DHS plans to purchase more than 5,000 body-worn cameras with the $20 million provided by Congress, according to a source.

“We’ve been told that body cameras would be widely distributed,” King told reporters Monday, citing a conversation with Mullin. “The secretary told me that they’re on order, that they have been distributed widely across the country but not everywhere.”

Still, the agents involved in the fatal shooting of a Mexican national in Houston last week did not have body cameras, a Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed. DHS said in a statement the man rammed into a law enforcement vehicle and refused to follow several verbal commands before an ICE agent fired his weapon in self-defense.

“Body cameras have been deployed to more than half the field offices, with the remaining half to receive them in the next 60 days,” the spokesperson said Thursday. The spokersperson cast blame for the delay on the previous government shutdown.

Similarly, the immigration agents in Maine involved in the Monday shooting of a 26-year-old father from Colombia were also not equipped with body cameras, the Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. DHS said in a statement the man attempted to flee the scene, and an officer “fearing for public safety” opened fire.

ICE policy has remained the same — the use of body cameras can be beneficial during operations — but not all regions have received the equipment.

Feds slow to wear body cameras

While local police departments have taken to body cameras, the federal government has been slower to adopt the technology.

It took until 2021 for the first federal agents to use body cameras, and years further for its wider use. In December, for example, the US Marshals finally equipped their deputies with body cameras through an initiative that began six years earlier.

In 2022, the Biden administration issued an executive order, “Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices To Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety,” which mandated the use of body cameras by federal law enforcement.

ICE implemented a policy in January 2024 requiring most officers to wear body cameras during “all aspects of ICE enforcement activities,” except for certain investigative activities. ICE had started to deploy the cameras at the end of Biden’s term.

President Donald Trump rescinded that directive in an executive order at the start of his second term in January 2025.

Federal immigration agents also have bristled at having their tactics recorded by FBI agents wearing body cameras, CNN has reported. During one heated exchange last year, immigration agents who did not want to be captured on body camera footage refused to invite FBI agents along for an arrest operation, one of the sources said.

The lack of body cameras on immigration agents has frustrated efforts at oversight, particularly in the judiciary. Last year, a federal judge in Chicago said she would require all federal agents who were part of Operation Midway Blitz with body cameras to have them on during encounters with immigration protesters.

“That’s the nice thing about body cameras is that they pick up events before the triggering event happens,” the judge said.

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