The September 1 announcement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the agency now has enough body cameras to equip all of its officers and agents closes one chapter in a years-long effort and opens another: ICE has still not answered how many officers are already wearing cameras or when training will finish.
An unnamed ICE spokesperson said in a statement to NPR that “training required to equip individual officers remains ongoing and we expect to complete this training soon.” ICE did not respond to questions about training duration or current camera deployment. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin offered a more specific timeline during a press conference in New York on Tuesday, saying he predicts that by the end of September every officer in the field will have a body-worn camera. “We have the permanent cameras, but we also have Motorola [that] is working with us on the mics that we use,” Mullin said, noting that microphones could also act as cameras. He said he plans to meet with Motorola’s CEO this week to discuss the technology. “It’s for our safety and the public safety, too,” Mullin said.
Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent, characterized ICE’s announcement as a “hollow promise.” “Unless and until there is a change of policy and leadership, today’s news simply means that there is more expensively-equipped lawlessness on our streets rather than responsible, legitimate law enforcement,” King said in a statement. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) offered a different account of the training status. “The fact that ICE has now acquired enough cameras to equip officers and agents nationwide is important progress. We understand training has been completed across all ICE areas of responsibility,” Cuellar said in a statement to NPR — directly contradicting the ICE spokesperson’s claim that training remains ongoing.
The agency’s announcement follows two deadly July shootings of immigrants during enforcement operations. Federal immigration officers shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine; according to ICE, neither the targets of the arrests nor the officers involved were wearing body cameras in either incident. The shootings prompted renewed calls for body-worn cameras from Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and dozens of Democrats.
ICE also reported approximately 50,000 arrests in July — the agency’s highest monthly total so far this administration. Lawmakers and advocates have called for body cameras in the wake of more than two dozen shootings involving federal immigration officers.
The camera rollout traces back at least five years. Congress mandated in 2021 that ICE work with the Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to design a pilot program for body-worn cameras. A 2024 DHS report said ICE expected body cameras to be implemented agency-wide by September 2025 — a target the agency has now missed by approximately a year. The initial effort grew out of a Biden administration executive order expanding federal law enforcement use of body cameras; President Trump rescinded that order upon returning to the White House last year, and DHS subsequently reduced staffing at the office tasked with helping oversee the ICE camera pilot program.
Funding for the cameras arrived through two congressional measures. Money provided by congressional Republicans last year made ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency, though none of the funds were earmarked specifically for body cameras. Earlier this year, top DHS officials, including Mullin, urged lawmakers to provide funding specifically for purchasing more cameras and training officers to use them. Congress responded with $31 billion for technology including body cameras and $20 million specifically for body cameras — though lawmakers were unable to negotiate a mandate for ICE to purchase or use the cameras. This summer, DHS awarded two contracts to Axon Enterprise totaling more than $30 million for cameras.
Significant questions about implementation remain unanswered. In February, officials told lawmakers that ICE had 3,000 cameras for 13,000 officers, and in some instances entire field offices were not equipped with any cameras. Court records from “Operation Metro Surge” in Minneapolis last winter showed that no body-worn cameras were “physically located” at the St. Paul field office. Immigration officers in Minneapolis were wearing cameras when they shot and killed two U.S. citizens in January; footage from CBP officers’ cameras worn during the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti reportedly contradicted the administration’s initial narrative of his death, renewing calls for broader use of the cameras.
Advocates for body-worn cameras say they are still waiting to see whether the program is fully implemented and whether footage from incidents is publicly released.