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Promises, then gaps
The Department of Homeland Security pledged body cameras for all immigration agents after federal officers killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January, but nearly six months later the rollout had not fully materialized, and DHS said none of the federal officers involved were wearing body cameras.
In Texas, DHS accused Lorenzo Salgado Araujo of weaponizing his car and trying to run over an agent, while in Maine DHS accused Joan Durán Guerrero of being a public safety threat while attempting to flee, and the agency said the officers involved were not wearing body cameras.
NPR reported that U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, renewed calls for a mandate, saying, "This incident shows how imperative it is that we have a mandate for body-worn cameras."
NPR also quoted Lauren Bonds, the executive director of the nonprofit National Police Accountability Project, saying, "They have been particularly important in exposing excessive force and contradicting false narratives that officers write in their incident reports."
What counts as a camera
USA TODAY reported that in the July 7 Houston shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and the July 13 Biddeford, Maine shooting of Joan Sebastian Guerrero, "In neither shooting were ICE officers wearing body cameras," and it said DHS officials blamed "back-to-back Democrat shutdowns" for delaying the rollout.
In response to scrutiny, DHS said it would ensure each arrest team has an individual body camera, and ABC7 Los Angeles quoted the department stating that ICE will ensure each "arrest team has an individual body camera."
But The Intercept reported that at the Maine shooting scene, federal officers were wearing body cameras according to four ICE officials who reviewed images, while also saying the cameras were on multi-function devices used as radio mics.
The Intercept quoted an ICE official explaining, "However, we are currently only using them as mics because of the AXON contract," and said the function wasn’t used even though the Motorola SVX devices are designed to work as body cameras.
Next steps and accountability
NPR said DHS blamed government shutdowns for the lack of body cams, while White House Border Czar Tom Homan told reporters that "hundreds" of cameras were purchased and sent to Minnesota after the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, but that there were not enough cameras to outfit every ICE agent.
CBS News reported that DHS said every U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest team will have at least one law enforcement officer equipped with a body-worn camera going forward, and it cited DHS’s statement that "Ensuring all of our ICE law enforcement officers have body cameras nationwide is a top priority for DHS."
CBS News also said Democratic Rep. Sylvia Garcia argued DHS had money to deploy cameras more rapidly and quoted her saying, "Trust me, I will hold him to it," after Acting ICE Director David Venturella assured her all agents would have access by the end of July.
In the background of the dispute over whether cameras were worn or turned on, The Intercept described how the SVX devices can store over 100 hours of standard-definition video but said the video-recording function requires a subscription, leaving the question of what footage exists tied to contracts and activation choices.
