Half of ICE field offices still lack body cameras after recent fatal shootings

• The Department of Homeland Security has not fully deployed body cameras to immigration agents nearly six months after pledging to do so in January following fatal shootings in Minneapolis.
• None of the federal officers involved in the recent killings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Joan Durán Guerrero in Maine were wearing body cameras, the agency said.
• DHS said in a statement that half of its field offices currently have body cameras, with the other half expected to receive them within 60 days.
• Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and other lawmakers are calling for a mandate requiring body-worn cameras, citing the need to protect both officers and the public.
• Critics, including David Bier of the Cato Institute, said DHS has millions in discretionary funds and has not made body cameras a priority, noting that available video footage has repeatedly contradicted the agency’s narratives of fatal encounters.

Sen. Collins calls for mandate as independent video contradicts DHS accounts

The Department of Homeland Security has not fully deployed body cameras to immigration agents nearly six months after pledging to do so in January following fatal shootings in Minneapolis, leaving officers involved in recent deadly encounters without recordings.

In recent days, federal immigration agents fatally shot two immigrant fathers. DHS accused Lorenzo Salgado Araujo of weaponizing his car and trying to run over an agent in Texas, and described Joan Durán Guerrero as a public safety threat while attempting to flee in Maine. The agency confirmed that none of the officers involved were wearing body cameras.

The lack of video has prompted renewed calls from lawmakers, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), for a mandate requiring body-worn cameras. “This incident shows how imperative it is that we have a mandate for body-worn cameras,” Collins told reporters Tuesday. “That not only protects the law enforcement officer, but also those with whom he or she is interacting.”

White House Border Czar Tom Homan said Tuesday that “hundreds” of cameras were purchased and sent to Minnesota after the Minneapolis shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January. “But there wasn’t enough cameras to outfit every ICE agent, I was waiting up for more money,” Homan said.

Congress provided $31 billion for technology, including body cameras, but lawmakers were unable to negotiate a mandate for ICE to purchase or use them. In a statement, DHS blamed the delays on government shutdowns, saying “the process of purchasing and issuing body-worn cameras to all of our ICE field offices was interrupted by the Democrats (and) multiple government shutdowns.”

DHS said half of its field offices currently have body cameras, and the other half will receive them within 60 days. “Ensuring all of our ICE law enforcement officers have body cameras nationwide is a top priority for DHS — especially given the increase in attacks against our law enforcement,” the agency said.

David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said DHS’s statements indicate that issuing body cameras is not a priority. “They don’t want to have their agents’ actions broadcast and have that video out there — they are wearing masks for a reason, they don’t want their identities and their information made public,” Bier told NPR. “Even after multiple deaths where body camera footage would have been relevant they have not implemented the requirement.”

Lauren Bonds, executive director of the nonprofit National Police Accountability Project, told NPR that body-worn cameras are an important accountability tool, particularly when investigating law enforcement misconduct. “They have been particularly important in exposing excessive force and contradicting false narratives that officers write in their incident reports,” Bonds said. However, she cautioned that cameras alone are not a solution, because “officers have learned to not activate cameras or delete footage when they do something wrong.”

Independent video footage has repeatedly contradicted DHS’s accounts of recent deadly shootings. In the Minneapolis killings of Good and Pretti, DHS initially accused them of being domestic terrorists and attempting to hurt federal agents, but bystander videos contradicted those claims. In the shootings of Salgado Araujo and Durán Guerrero, home and business surveillance footage is starting to offer a different picture of the moments before the men were killed.

“Luckily in both instances, there were witnesses, independent witnesses, that observed some things and were able to share some information,” Bonds said. “But it’s really hard to be able to hold ICE agents accountable in any manner if all we’re getting from DHS right now is kind of vague statements.”