ICE officers in US to wear cameras during vehicle stops
Border czar Tom Homan said the agency will require its officers to record vehicle stops with at least one body camera, following a spate of deadly shootings involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“They exonerate more law enforcement officers than they convict, and I want police officers to wear body cameras because I want the American people to see what police officers see when they commit this action,” Homan told Fox News.
Homan’s comments come after federal immigration agents fatally shot two men six days apart during traffic stops in Texas and Maine earlier this month.
There is no body camera footage of the ICE agents involved in these incidents.
In a separate interview with CBS, Homan said money for the cameras was withheld during the partial government shutdown earlier this year.
“The cameras are purchased right now,” Homan said.
“They train the trainer on the deployment of cameras across the country.”
The agency’s tactics have come under renewed public scrutiny in recent days after an ICE officer killed a Colombian driver on July 13 in the Maine coastal town of Biddeford, about 15 miles south of Portland.
Six days earlier, another ICE officer in Houston fatally shot a Mexican citizen.
Homan said last week that the agency would temporarily suspend most vehicle stops across the country to review procedures.
Within 24 hours of Homan’s comments, US President Donald Trump ordered federal immigration officials to proceed with proceedings.
The back-to-back shootings sparked protests in Maine, Houston and Boston and raised questions about ICE agents’ lack of body cameras.
ICE launched a body camera pilot program in 2024, placing cameras on officers in five cities: Baltimore, Buffalo, Detroit, Philadelphia and Washington DC.
The Trump administration moved to slow the program last year, urging Congress to cut funding by 75 percent, Reuters reported in January.
In February, after two U.S. citizens were killed during a crackdown on immigrants in Minnesota, then-U.S. Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem said the body camera program would be distributed to ICE agents nationwide “as long as funding is available.”
At least seven people have been shot and killed during federal immigration enforcement operations since January 2025, when Trump launched mass deportations after returning to office following campaign promises to crack down on immigration.
