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July 15, 2026 / 12:13 AM EDT
/ CBS News
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Every U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest team will have at least one law enforcement officer equipped with a body-worn camera going forward, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday, after two fatal shootings by agents who didn't have cameras."Ensuring all of our ICE law enforcement officers have body cameras nationwide is a top priority for DHS," the department said in a statement, pointing to an increase in assaults against immigration agents. "This is especially needed because the media and sanctuary politicians consistently spread smears about our law enforcement."The move comes after a Mexican man was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Houston last week, and six days later, an agent shot and killed a Colombian man in Biddeford, Maine. In both cases, the immigration personnel involved in the shootings were not wearing body cameras.Shortly after the Houston shooting, DHS said body cameras had been deployed to more than half of ICE's field offices, and the remaining offices were set to receive them within 60 days.The agency blamed the incomplete rollout on a monthslong lapse in DHS funding during the partial government shutdown earlier this year. A DHS spokesperson said the officers in Houston "had not been issued body-worn cameras due to back-to-back Democrat shutdowns."Prior to the shutdown, the Trump administration had initially proposed cutting funding and staffing for ICE's body-worn camera program. Congress ultimately approved $20 million in extra funding for DHS body cameras as part of a bill to end the partial government shutdown in April.In February, after a pair of fatal shootings by immigration agents in Minneapolis, then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the agency would "rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country" as funding became available.
