The Trump administration announced Monday that immigration officers in Minneapolis will begin wearing body cameras during operations in the city, after congressional Democrats and some Republicans called for ICE and Border Patrol to adopt the technology.
The apparent concession comes as the administration and lawmakers haggle over new limits for immigration enforcement as they negotiate a funding compromise for the Department of Homeland Security.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media Monday that in the name of transparency, her department would “immediately” deploy body cameras to all ICE and Border Patrol officers operating in Minneapolis as part of the administration’s crackdown in the Twin Cities.
Noem added that “as funding is available, the body camera program will be expanded nationwide. We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country.”
A body camera requirement has won bipartisan support on Capitol Hill during the DHS funding fight. Moderate Republicans had come around to the idea that ICE and CBP should require agents to wear body cameras, even as debate continues on other Democratic proposals, including more training and the end of qualified immunity for ICE officers.
But the concession underscores the administration’s desire to end the partial government shutdown, which was triggered after Democrats refused to fund DHS and pass other government funding legislation after immigration officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.
Earlier Monday, President Donald Trump wrote on social media that he and Speaker Mike Johnson “will work together in good faith to address the issues that have been raised, but we cannot have another long, pointless, and destructive shutdown that will hurt our country so badly — one that will not benefit Republicans or Democrats.”
Asked Monday about the policy change, Trump said that it was “80 percent good for law enforcement” to use the cameras but insisted that it was Noem’s call.
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