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Homeland Security officers stationed in Minneapolis, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, will immediately be given body cameras, Secretary Kristi Nome said Monday.
NOM announced on social media platform X that the body camera program will be expanded nationwide as funding is available.
“We will rapidly deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country,” Nome wrote.
I just spoke. @RealTomHoman @ICEDirector @CBPCommissioner. It is deploying body cameras to every officer in Minneapolis, effective immediately.
As funding becomes available, the body camera program will expand nationwide. We quickly locate and deploy a component.
Minneapolis has been the site of intense scrutiny over the behavior of immigration enforcement agents since the fatal shootings of two Americans. Critics of Homeland Security have called for officers in the department responsible for immigration enforcement to wear body cameras.
Former US President Joe Biden ordered federal law enforcement officers to wear body cameras in 2022, part of an executive order that included other police reform measures. President Donald Trump rescinded that directive after his second term in office.
5-year-old Liam Ramos and his father have returned to Minneapolis more than a week after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and fueling protests. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has now said that the ICC will be sent to democratically governed cities only if they request it.
The president last week ordered his top border adviser to oversee the crackdown in Minneapolis after 37-year-old Alex Pretty, an intensive care nurse, was killed at a Veterans Affairs hospital. His death comes weeks after 37-year-old Renee Nicole Goode was shot to death in her car.
The killing sparked nationwide protests.
Border Patrol Czar Tom Homan said mistakes were made, but agents will continue to enforce federal law and called on local and state officials to cooperate with federal authorities.
Human rights activists have widely condemned Trump’s immigration policies as lacking due process and creating a hostile environment for immigrant communities. Trump described the actions as aimed at improving homeland security.
Commenting on the NOM announcement on Monday, Trump told reporters that body cameras are “good for law enforcement in general, because people can’t lie about what’s going on.”
“So generally speaking, I think 80 percent is good for law enforcement. But if she wants to do that, I’m fine with that,” he said. He explained that the decision was Noah’s, not his.