Every Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officer on the ground in Minneapolis, including those from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), would be immediately issued body-worn cameras, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said on Monday, in the latest fallout after the shooting deaths of two US citizens at the hands of federal agents.
Noem said the body-worn camera program is being expanded nationwide as funding becomes available.
“We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country,” Noem said in a social media post.
Photo: Reuters
The news of the body cameras comes as Minneapolis has been the site of intense scrutiny over the conduct of federal officers after two US citizens protesting immigration enforcement activities in the city were shot and killed.
It is the latest apparent effort by the administration of US President Donald Trump to ratchet down tensions after the shootings triggered protests and widespread criticism.
The shooting deaths sparked calls for accountability
In the immediate hours after intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti’s death, Noem went on the offensive, saying several times that Pretti “came with a weapon and dozens of rounds of ammunition and attacked” officers, who took action to “defend their lives.”
Other administration officials painted a similar picture.
Multiple videos that emerged of the shooting contradicted that claim, showing Pretti had only his mobile phone in his hand as officers tackled him to the ground, with one removing a handgun from the back of his pants as another officer began firing shots into his back.
The DHS has said that at least four Customs and Border Protection officers on the scene when Pretti was shot were wearing body cameras. The body camera footage from Pretti’s shooting has not been made public.
The department has not responded to repeated questions about whether any of the ICE officers at the scene of the killing of 37-year-old mother of three Renee Good earlier last month were wearing the cameras.
The shootings, and the narrative coming from some in the administration, sparked demands for accountability, including among some Republicans.
Trump sent his border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to take control of operations there, displacing Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who has become a lightning rod for criticism in the various operations he has joined in cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles.
The US Department of Justice has also opened a federal civil rights investigation into Pretti’s shooting, which it has not done in the case of Good.
Critics have increasingly called for the DHS to require its immigration enforcement officers to wear body cameras.
In response to Noem’s announcement, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said on social media that body cameras should have been worn “long before [officers] killed two Americans.”
Noem’s announcement comes as the administration and Democrats are locked in a congressional battle over funding for the DHS.
Democrats have been demanding changes to rein in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations. An additional US$20 million for body cameras was included in the bipartisan federal funding package that was approved by the US Senate late last week ahead of a deadline to prevent a government shutdown, but the US House of Representatives has yet to approve the package, launching a partial government shutdown for certain agencies, including the DHS, on Saturday, but because many DHS operations are deemed essential, they continue despite the federal funding lapse.
Body cameras have become a flashpoint in previous immigration enforcement operations under the Trump administration’s mass deportations agenda, including during a major operation in Chicago in the fall last year. A US district judge ordered uniformed agents there to wear cameras, if available, and turn them on when engaged in arrests, frisks and building searches or when being deployed to protests.
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