Federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement is close to outfitting agents and officers nationwide with body-worn cameras, but the footage recorded on devices may never make it to the public.
Internal ICE policy that was put forth weeks after President Donald Trump took office in early 2025 states that ICE has the final say in whether footage of officer-involved incidents will be publicly released, according to a copy of the document reviewed by the Washington Examiner.
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In the case of fatal encounters or shootings where releasing the footage would not bode well for the government, it means ICE could choose not to share it.
“In the event a Serious Bodily Injury or Death in Custody is captured by a [Body-Worn Camera], ICE will expeditiously review the footage,” the internal document states. “If it is determined that it is in the best interests of the agency to publicly release the BWC footage, ICE will, as soon as practicable, expedite the public release of such footage.”
The policy stands in contrast with the public’s calls for video footage of two recent fatal shootings of illegal immigrants during encounters with ICE in Maine and Texas. In both incidents this summer, the ICE officers involved were not wearing body cameras, pitting ICE’s claims about the incident up against video footage captured by neighborhood cameras and passersby.
Body cameras were first funded during the Biden administration, but Democrats in Congress began to advocate them during the Trump administration in 2019. However, due to a lack of funding from Congress, they were never fully rolled out to ICE’s roughly 20,000 employees.
Following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizen activists in Minneapolis this past January, Democrats renewed their push to put cameras on federal agents and officers across the Department of Homeland Security. ICE spent nearly $31 million earlier this year on body cameras from Axon.
The 2023 ICE body camera policy was amended in February 2025 to require employees to turn on cameras before routine enforcement, such as making an arrest, executing a search warrant, or responding to an emergency.
However, only one member of each team in the field is required to wear a body camera, according to the Associated Press.
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It added that in the case of a significant encounter, a committee of senior ICE officials and attorneys would review body camera recordings and make a recommendation to the head of ICE whether it should be released or kept private.
If the ICE director determines there is “specific and compelling circumstances” to withhold the video, he or she has the authority to hold onto it.
