White House border czar Tom Homan said on Sunday, “I think body cameras are the way to go,” after fatal shootings by federal officers in Texas and Maine earlier this month.
“I think body cameras let the American people know what that officer sees when he takes that action,” Homan said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
On July 7, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Mexican national in Houston who had lived in the U.S. for decades. Days later, an ICE officer shot and killed a Colombian man in Biddeford, Maine. In both cases, the immigration personnel involved in the shootings were not wearing body cameras.
Homan said Sunday that “you can have a cellphone camera from a witness on the side, you can have, you know, city cameras or whatever. But I want the American people to see what that officer sees when he makes the decision and takes an action.”
“I think the American people need to see what that officer sees and hears,” Homan added. “I think it’s important.”
Homan has previously advocated for body cameras. And last week, the Department of Homeland Security announced that every Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest team will have at least one officer equipped with a camera going forward. DHS said shortly after the Houston shooting that body cameras had been deployed to more than half of ICE’s field offices, with the remaining offices set to receive them within 60 days.
The body cameras issue was part of negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans during a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year. At the time, Democrats refused to fund the department as they sought reforms to the administration’s immigration enforcement operation following two deadly shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis in January.
During the negotiations over immigration enforcement, the Trump administration signaled openness to expanding the use of body cameras. But negotiations ultimately fell apart. Democrats eventually opted to approve funding for the rest of the department in April, which included $20 million for body cameras, while Republicans later approved a roughly $70 billion package unilaterally to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of the Trump administration.
Homan on Sunday pointed to the DHS shutdown, claiming, “Everybody in ICE would have a camera now if the government wasn’t shut down by Democratic members of Congress.”
“There was money in that bill that they held up,” he said. “But because the government shut down, we’re behind on that.”
Democratic lawmakers have criticized DHS’s slow rollout of body cameras, given the funding approved in April, along with the “big, beautiful bill” passed last year. But Homan said the $20 million the department received earlier this year “wasn’t enough.”
“It didn’t fund everything, but now we have the funding after reconciliation,” Homan said, referring to the $70 billion package passed in June. “The cameras have been purchased, right now they’re training the trainer in deploying the cameras nationwide.”
The shootings in Texas and Maine have drawn renewed scrutiny on ICE’s practices. Homan said “we got to let the investigations play out,” but he noted that DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin “took some action in concern of the safety of the agents and how we do operations” with a pause on vehicle stops. President Trump overturned that suspension on Wednesday. Both men were shot during attempted vehicle stops, and DHS has acknowledged that they were not the intended targets of the immigration operations.
Homan said more broadly, he’s concerned about rhetoric, pointing to statements, including from members of Congress, encouraging people to resist Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said “I actually think that emboldens some people to say, ‘I’m not going to comply with ICE.'”
“And I think no matter what people think of ICE, no matter what you think of immigration law, you should always comply with law enforcement,” Homan said.
Homan said even unmarked law enforcement vehicles are equipped with emergency lights and sirens, along with an insignia worn by officers, that he argued would make clear that they’re law enforcement. In the Maine and Texas cases, Homan said he didn’t know whether those lights were used.
“I’m saying our vehicles are equipped with emergency lights,” Homan said. “If they didn’t activate the lights, then there’s an issue there.”