ICE officers to wear body cameras during vehicle stops, border czar says

The official also says the agency would temporarily suspend most vehicle stops around the country to review procedures

A person believed to be a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer holds out his hands towards the driver's side of a vehicle, at the intersection where a shooting involving ICE agents occurred on Monday, in Biddeford, Maine, US, Jul 13, 2026, in this screengrab taken from a handout video. Platinum Suds Laundromat/Platinum Pawn & Jewelry/Handout via REUTERS

In the wake of multiple fatal shootings involving US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, the agency will require its officers to record vehicle stops with at least one body camera, Trump administration border czar Tom Homan said Sunday.

“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 on the "Fox & Friends Weekend” programme.

Homan’s comments come after federal immigration agents fatally shot two men six days apart during traffic stops in Texas and Maine earlier this month. There is no body-camera footage from ICE agents involved in those incidents.

In a separate interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" show, Homan said money for the cameras was held up during the partial government shutdown earlier this year.

"The cameras have been purchased right now," Homan said. "They're training the trainer in deploying the cameras nationwide."

Traffic Stops Resume

The agency's tactics came under ⁠renewed public scrutiny in recent days after an ICE officer on Jul 13 killed a driver from Colombia in the coastal Maine town of Biddeford, about 15 miles (24 km) south of Portland. Six days earlier, another ICE officer in Houston fatally shot a Mexican national.

Homan said last week the agency would temporarily suspend most vehicle stops around the country to review procedures. Within 24 hours of Homan’s comments, US President Donald Trump directed federal immigration agents to resume them.

The back-to-back shootings sparked protests in Maine, Houston and Boston and raised questions over ICE agents' lack of body cameras.

ICE launched a body-camera pilot programme in 2024 and deployed cameras to officers in five cities: Baltimore, Buffalo, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.

The Trump administration moved last year to slow-walk the programme, urging Congress to cut funding by 75 percent, Reuters reported in January.

In February, after the killing of two US citizens during an immigration crackdown in Minnesota, then US Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem said the body camera programme would be rolled out to ICE agents nationwide “as funding is available.”

At least seven people have been shot dead during federal immigration enforcement operations since January 2025, when Trump launched mass deportations after returning to office following campaign promises of an immigration crackdown.