ICE officers to wear body cameras during vehicle stops, border czar says
By Diana Novak Jones
July 19 (Reuters) – Trump administration border czar Tom Homan said on Sunday that after a spate of deadly shootings involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, the agency will require its officers to “record vehicle stops with at least one body camera.”
“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.”
TRAFFIC STOPS CONTINUE
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, distributing the cameras to police 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 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 immigrants.
(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones; Editing by Sergio Non and Chizu Nomiyama)
