ICE officers to use body cameras during vehicle stops, Trump ‘border czar’ says | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s “border czar,” said Sunday that he will require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to record vehicle stops with at least one body camera. The action comes as the agency is under renewed scrutiny after ICE officers fatally shot two people earlier this month.
“They exonerate more law enforcement officers than they convict, and I want officers to wear body cameras because I want the American people to see what officers see when they commit that action,” Homan said on Fox & Friends Weekend.
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 on CBS’ Face the Nation, 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.”
Immigration agency’s extreme tactics have once again come under public scrutiny in recent days after an ICE officer killed Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian driver, on July 13 in the Maine coastal city of Biddeford, about 15 miles south of Portland. Six days earlier, another ICE officer in Houston had fatally shot Mexican citizen Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.
Salgado, who was not the primary target of IYM officers, was followed and stopped while leading a construction crew to a construction site. His family said Salgado had no criminal history, had lived in the United States for 35 years and was close to gaining legal status.
Less than a week later, ICE agents shot and killed Durán during another traffic stop. Like Salgado, Durán was not the target of an operation. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed that the officers were concerned for their safety. Immigrant rights activists said Durán was authorized to work in the United States and had a social security number.
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, Donald Trump instructed 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%, Reuters reported in January.
In February, after two U.S. citizens were killed during a crackdown on immigration in Minnesota, then-DHS chief Kristi Noem said the body camera program would be offered to ICE agents nationwide “as long as funding is available.”
Durán’s killing was the 11th fatal shooting by federal immigration officials since the start of Trump’s second term, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, according to a Guardian review of public reporting.
FBI agents will no longer investigate run-ins with ICE agents, according to the New York Times report he said, referring to people briefed on the decision. They said this decision was sent in writing on Thursday. Previously, these investigative cases could reveal information that could be used to prosecute ICE agents involved in violent confrontations.
Dani Anguiano contributed reporting
