A masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent knocks on a car window in Minnesota, January 12, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
WASHINGTON – In the wake of two deadly shootings in Texas and Maine, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement officers will wear “at least one body camera” during traffic stops, Tom Homan, the president’s border czar, said over the weekend.
Homan, who was tasked by President Donald Trump to lead the mass deportation campaign, said in a Sunday interview on Fox News that the acting director of ICE had instructed officers to wear body cameras during vehicle stops “whenever possible.”
This month, two immigrants – 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero and a 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo — were shot by ICE agents who impounded their vehicles. The Department of Homeland Security said neither man was the initial target for execution.
While Fox and Friends Sunday Weekend ShowHoman stated that he supports body cameras because “they exonerate more law enforcement than they convict.”
“I want officers to wear body cameras because I want the American people to see what the officers saw when they took this action,” Homan said.
Federal immigration officials they shot 22 people and killed sixincluding three US citizens, during the second Trump administration. Most of the shootings occurred during traffic stops, which Homan said officers continued to do.
After the subsequent shootings of Salgado Araujo in Texas and Guerrero in Maine, DHS instructed agents to halt vehicle stops, but Trump quickly changed those plans.
Stagnation in Congress
Homan blamed Democrats for immigration agents not having body cameras, pointing to the week-long DHS shutdown. He also charged that traffic stops are becoming more perilous because of Democrats’ criticism of ICE.
“They are now more dangerous than ever because Democratic members of Congress, Democratic mayors and governors have spent the last year proclaiming that ‘ICE is not a true law enforcement agency. ICE has no power. Oppose it,'” he said.
Democrats refused to approve DHS funding unless restrictions, such as requiring them to wear body cameras, were placed on ICE and Border Patrol officers after two U.S. citizens were killed by federal immigration officials in Minnesota in January.
Congressional Republicans last year used a special legislative maneuver to allocate approximately $175 billion to DHS for immigration enforcement, detention and deportation, without the need for Democratic support.
GOP lawmakers used the same move after this year’s shutdown to fund $75 billion for ICE and the Border Patrol through September 2029.
In a separate interview on Sunday’s CBS Face the Nation, Homan reiterated his support for body cameras on ICE officers and blamed Democrats for not having body cameras.
“I think body cameras will be the best solution,” he said.
After two killings in Minnesota in January, then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said DHS would issue body cameras to immigration officers.
