ICE to equip officers with body cameras but may limit access to footage

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will equip its officers with body cameras over the next two months, according to reports, but the agency’s policy gives officials broad discretion over footage released to the public that’s deemed in its “best interests.” 

More than half of the agency’s field officers have already been outfitted with the body cams, according to The Associated Press. The others are expected to receive them by the end of September.

The rollout follows increased pressure and public scrutiny on the agency after fatal shootings involving ICE officers amid President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, leading lawmakers to call on the agency for more transparency.

Under an ICE directive issued in February 2025, officers are required to activate their cameras at the beginning of enforcement activities, including arrests, stops and searches.

If the footage captures an incident involving serious bodily injury or death while in custody, the agency said it will review the video and release it to the public — but only if the administration determines doing so would be “in the best interests of the agency.”

While the agency generally aims to complete that process within 72 hours, the director can withhold or indefinitely delay footage release if there are “specific and compelling circumstances” against releasing it that cannot be solved through redactions.

A review group consisting of senior ICE officials, lawyers and other agency personnel will look through the recordings of serious incidents and issue recommendations to leadership about whether a public release is warranted.

The policy also requires ICE to redact officers’ faces and other identifying information before releasing it.

In July, an ICE officer fatally shot a 25-year-old motorist in Maine, and in a separate incident another officer shot and killed a homebuilder driving to work in Houston. Neither encounter was recorded on an officer body camera.

White House border czar Tom Homan said last month that body cameras would provide more transparency around confrontations involving immigration officers.

“I think body cameras are the way to go,” he told CBS News’s Margaret Brennan at the time. “I think body cameras let the American people know what that officer sees when he takes that action.”