The White House’s border czar has confirmed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carrying out traffic stops will have to record the stops.
“They [body cameras] 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,” Tom Homan said in an interview on “Fox & Friends Weekend” that aired on July 19.
Homan also said that ICE vehicle stops have resumed across the United States, adding that “at least one body camera” must be worn during the stop. He said “vehicle stops are dangerous,” adding that protesters, Democratic officials, and activist groups calling on the public to resist ICE enforcement activity have exacerbated the problem.
“We CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands,” he wrote, adding that Democrats “would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch.”
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in an X post that he and Trump are “on the same page” regarding vehicle stops by ICE agents.
“We want our [ICE] officers to have all options available to keep them safe while executing our mission of deporting as many illegal alien criminals from our country as possible,” Mullin said.
Separately, Homan told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on July 19 that with body cameras, the U.S. public would “see what that officer sees and hears.” The initiative to deploy body cameras to agents nationwide is ongoing, he said.
“The cameras have been purchased,” Homan said. “Right now they’re training the trainer in deploying the cameras nationwide.”
Meanwhile, Homan told CBS that rhetoric against ICE may embolden people to develop a notion that it’s OK not “to comply with ICE,” but he stressed that “no matter what people think of ICE, no matter what you think of immigration law, you should always comply with law enforcement.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who led a shutdown of the DHS earlier this year in a bid to impose rules on ICE agents, was critical of the incident in Maine and claimed the agency “rushed 12,000 agents onto our streets without ensuring they were fit to carry a badge and a gun.”
He also made reference to a recent Associated Press report that included allegations against an ICE agent involved in the shooting of the illegal immigrant in Maine.
“Republicans gave this rogue agency vast power and no accountability,” he wrote in a post on X Saturday. “They cannot block every safeguard and then disown the deadly consequences. We must pass the commonsense reforms Democrats offered to prevent more killings.”
DHS did not respond to an Epoch Times request for comment on the body camera directive.
