Acting director said the process is ahead of schedule.
All Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers will be equipped with body-worn cameras by the end of August, the agency’s acting director, David Venturella, said on Saturday.
In a statement posted on X, Venturella said that the rollout is ahead of schedule. The cameras are a key measure congressional Democrats demanded during a months-long funding dispute earlier this year over the Department of Homeland Security.
“We’re committed to transparency and accountability,” the acting director said.
In his statement, Venturella also criticized a Friday report from The Associated Press that said ICE’s policy of releasing body-camera footage states that any disclosures must be in the agency’s “best interests.”
Venturella called the report “disappointing, though not surprising,” “misleading,” and “sensationalized.”
The acting director said the news outlet misconstrued ICE’s body-worn camera policy by conflating the expedited release of footage following a serious injury or death in custody with the agency’s broader authority to release footage.
“Those are distinct issues,” Venturella said. “Here is the truth: ICE policy permits expedited release when appropriate — and clarifies that it’s not appropriate to release footage when doing so could compromise investigations or privacy.”
He added that this protocol mirrors that of other federal law enforcement agencies and is compliant with the Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act.
Border czar Tom Homan said last month that ICE agents conducting traffic stops must have at least one body camera between them. The policy was announced after fatal shootings of two illegal immigrants, one each in Maine and Texas.
“[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,” Homan said in an interview aired July 19 on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
Homan also blamed protesters, Democratic officials, and activist groups calling on the public to resist ICE operations for worsening the dangers of vehicle stops.
Homeland Security had temporarily suspended traffic stops following the fatal encounters, but President Donald Trump promptly overturned that pause.
“We CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”
After the deaths of two U.S. citizens earlier this year by federal agents during protests against an immigration operation in Minnesota, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said body cameras for ICE officers would be rolled out across the country in accordance with available funding.
By Troy Myers
