Tom Homan, the Trump administration's border czar, announced Sunday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will equip officers with body cameras during vehicle stops, a policy shift that follows two fatal shootings by ICE agents in six days.
Speaking on Fox & Friends Weekend, Homan said the cameras would help document officer conduct and protect both agents and the public. "They exonerate more law enforcement than they convict, and I want officers to wear body cameras because I want the American people to see what the officers saw when they took that action," he said.
The announcement came after ICE officers fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on July 7 and Joan Sebastian Duran Guerrero near Portland, Maine on July 13. Neither man was the intended target of ICE operations. Salgado, a Mexican national, had lived in the U.S. for 35 years and was close to obtaining legal status when he was shot during a traffic stop. Duran, a Colombian driver, was also stopped during a vehicle check. Neither incident was recorded by body camera footage.
The shootings triggered immediate backlash. Homan announced a temporary suspension of most vehicle stops nationwide to review procedures, but Trump reversed the decision within 24 hours and directed agents to resume them. Protests erupted in Maine, Houston, and Boston.
Homan told CBS that the cameras had already been purchased and agents were undergoing training to deploy them nationwide. He cited a partial government shutdown earlier this year as the reason funding for the equipment had been delayed.
ICE began a body-camera pilot program in 2024, deploying devices to officers in five cities: Baltimore, Buffalo, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. The Trump administration had previously sought to cut the program's funding by 75 percent. Last February, after two U.S. citizens were killed during an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem pledged the cameras would be rolled out nationally as funding became available.
The fatal shootings mark an escalation in ICE enforcement activities. Since Trump's second term began, federal immigration officials have been involved in at least 11 fatal shootings, including the Minneapolis killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The Department of Homeland Security cited officer safety concerns in both the Salgado and Duran cases.
A separate development complicates oversight. The FBI will no longer investigate confrontations involving ICE agents, according to a report, with written notice sent Thursday of the change. These investigations previously could yield evidence used to prosecute ICE agents in violent encounters.
Author James Rodriguez: "Body cameras are overdue, but their rollout after two preventable deaths rings hollow without independent investigation oversight."
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