Shortly after immigration agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January, the Department of Homeland Security vowed to quickly deploy body cameras for officers across the country. But nearly six months later, those plans have not fully materialized.
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, while the agency accused Joan Durán Guerrero of being a public safety threat while attempting to flee in Maine.
None of the federal officers involved were wearing body cameras, the agency said.
This has prompted lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to renew their calls on DHS to deploy body cameras as soon as possible.
"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."
Lauren Bonds, the executive director of the nonprofit National Police Accountability Project, told NPR body-worn cameras are an important accountability tool, particularly when probing 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. "They have been a game changer in proving civil rights claims."
Money for bodycams
While talking to reporters Tuesday, White House Border Czar Tom Homan said "hundreds" of cameras were purchased and sent to Minnesota following the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
"But there wasn't enough cameras to outfit every ICE agent, I was waiting up for more money," Homan said.
Money provided by congressional Republicans last year made ICE the highest funded federal law enforcement agency. At the start of the year, top DHS officials urged lawmakers to provide funding specifically for purchasing and training on the use of more body cameras. Most recently, Congress responded by providing $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 to NPR, DHS blamed government shutdowns for the lack of body cams.
"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," the agency said.
It's unclear how many body cameras DHS currently owns, and how many will be bought with the funding. The agency did not respond to NPR's specific questions about the purchase of them.
David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, told NPR that DHS's statements show that issuing body cameras is not a priority for them.
"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 said.
He also said DHS has millions of dollars that it could spend at its discretion on equipping agents for duty and buying body cameras.
"Even after multiple deaths where body camera footage would have been relevant they have not implemented the requirement," Bier said.
But Homan said, there's "a deployment schedule on the books." He said agents are getting trained in different field offices so they could wear the cameras.
DHS said in a statement that half of the 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 in a statement. "This is especially needed because the media and sanctuary politicians consistently spread smears about our law enforcement."
But Bonds, with the National Police Accountability Project, said body cameras do not deter law enforcement agents from engaging in bad behavior.
"Officers have learned to not activate cameras or delete footage when they do something wrong," Bonds said. "Accordingly, the best way to stop ICE brutality is to limit officer interactions with the public."
Video footage has tended to contradict DHS's narratives following recent deadly shootings.
In the killings of Good and Pretti in Minneapolis, DHS initially accused them of being domestic terrorists and of attempting to hurt or kill federal immigration agents. But bystander videos contradicted their claims.
In the most recent shootings of Salgado Araujo and Durán Guerrero, home and business surveillance footage is starting to paint a picture of what happened moments before the two men were killed.
"Luckily in both instances, there were witnesses, independent witnesses, that observed some things and were able to share some information — have been sharing information with the public," 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."
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