HOUSTON – The Department of Homeland Security has said all ICE field agents are expected to have body-worn cameras by the end of September.
But as that deadline approaches, shootings involving ICE agents in Houston, Austin and Maine are raising a larger question: Will the promised body-camera rollout provide the transparency and accountability families are demanding when agents use force?
In August, ICE Director David Venturella said the rollout was ahead of schedule. On Sept. 1, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said he was confident the agency would meet the end-of-September target.
Then, days before that deadline, NBC News reported that the ICE officer who shot a man in Austin had been issued a body camera, but was not wearing it.
In Austin, local police released video from their investigation within days of the shooting. The footage shows parts of what happened before and after the gunfire, but not the moment the ICE agent fired. NBC News reports another ICE agent at the scene was wearing a body camera, but that camera also did not capture the shooting. After a separate ICE shooting in Maine last July, families and the public were also left with questions about what happened and what evidence was available.
Those incidents are now part of a broader debate over whether body cameras can provide accountability during encounters between ICE agents and people in the communities where they operate.
Family calls for accountability after deadly shooting
The questions are especially significant in Houston, where ICE agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on July 7, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
No ICE agents involved in that shooting were wearing body cameras.
Sons of Salgado Araujo are demanding all evidence be preserved.
“Every piece of evidence must be preserved and shared, including audio, agency communications, radio traffic, and any other video or audio that exists — even though no agent that day wore a body camera,” Lorenzo Salgado Jr. , said. “We have sent our own letters demanding the preservation of evidence, and we ask that you do the same.”
Ronaldo Salgado also addressed ICE directly at a hearing in Washington, D.C. this week.
“ICE is killing people, whether on the streets or in detention centers, and millions of immigrants and their loved ones are living in fear that they might be next,” Ronaldo Salgado said.
In the Houston case, there are also three witnesses who were with Salgado Araujo when he was killed.
Houston bus video under review
KPRC 2 has requested video from a Metro bus that passed near the scene of the Houston shooting. The Texas Attorney General’s Office is reviewing whether that footage can be released.
KPRC 2 has also asked DHS whether ICE agents in the Houston region are currently wearing body cameras and whether they have been trained to use them.
The agency’s end-of-September deadline is now approaching, but questions remain about compliance, training and whether agents who are equipped with cameras are wearing them and turning them on.
Back in July, the Associated Press reported that the agency’s policy on body-worn cameras says DHS will release video of shootings and other encounters when its agents cause death or serious injury only after determining, “it is in the best interest of the agency,” to do so.
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