Following a series of fatal shootings involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, the agency will soon require officers conducting vehicle stops to wear at least one body camera, Trump administration border czar Tom Homan announced Sunday as ICE moves to increase transparency during enforcement operations.
"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," Homan said during an appearance on Fox News' "Fox & Friends Weekend."
The announcement follows two deadly traffic-stop incidents earlier this month involving ICE agents. Federal officers fatally shot two men in separate encounters six days apart - one in Texas and the other in Maine. Neither incident was captured by ICE body cameras because the agents involved lacked the equipment.
During a separate CBS appearance, Homan attributed delays in the nationwide body camera rollout to funding constraints tied to a partial federal government shutdown earlier in the year. "The cameras have been purchased right now," Homan said. "They're training the trainer in deploying the cameras nationwide."
An ICE officer fatally shot a Colombian driver on July 13 during a traffic stop in Bidfeford, Maine, south of Portland. Less than a week earlier, another ICE officer fatally shot a Mexican national during a vehicle stop in Houston.
Homan announced last week that ICE would temporarily halt most vehicle stops nationwide while the agency reviewed its procedures. However, within 24 hours, President Donald Trump directed federal immigration officers to resume the stops.
The fatal shootings sparked demonstrations in Maine, Houston, and Boston, with critics questioning the absence of body cameras for ICE officers in such encounters.
ICE began a pilot body-camera program in 2024 in Baltimore, Buffalo, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. The Trump administration later sought to reduce the program's expansion funding by 75%, according to reporting published in January.
In February, following deaths during an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced ICE body cameras would eventually be deployed nationwide "as funding is available."
Since January 2025, at least seven people have been killed during federal immigration enforcement operations.