ICE orders body cameras for all arrest teams after fatal shootings

Federal immigration arrest teams will now have at least one officer wearing a body-worn camera after two fatal shootings in Houston and Biddeford, Maine.

The deaths sharpened scrutiny over Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican man killed by an ICE agent in Houston, and Tomas Espin Tapia, a Colombian man shot and killed in Biddeford six days later. DHS said the men shot were in the U.S. illegally and were not the intended targets of the operations. Body cameras were already deployed to more than half of ICE field offices, with the rest expected within 60 days, but the effort was slowed by a monthslong lapse in funding during a partial government shutdown earlier this year.

Congress approved an additional $20 million for DHS body cameras in April, and the Congressional Research Service said the fiscal 2026 DHS appropriations bill included that money for immigration-enforcement officers but did not require ICE or Customs and Border Protection officers to use the devices. On February 2, Kristi Noem said DHS would “rapidly acquire and deploy” body cameras across DHS law enforcement as funding became available, but five months later the rollout was still unfinished. DHS spokespersons blamed the delay on “back-to-back Democrat shutdowns.” The broader program has moved through ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, Homeland Security Investigations and Office of Professional Responsibility, with a pilot and privacy assessment completed before wider deployment. Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Houston said Acting ICE Director David Venturella told her all agents in the field would have access to body cameras by the end of July, while Sen. Angus King of Maine called the lack of cameras a fair question in a case that may turn on disputed facts.