U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that all of its field personnel will use body cameras by the end of August. The agency announced the decision as debate continued over making public footage recorded during use-of-force incidents.
Acting ICE Director David J. Venturella argued that an Associated Press report on the agency's policy was misleading. Venturella said the report had inaccurately interpreted the reasons for not releasing the footage.
According to Venturella, ICE policy allows body-camera recordings to be released on an expedited basis when appropriate. However, releasing the footage is not considered appropriate when it could jeopardize investigations or endanger individuals' privacy.
The Associated Press had criticized ICE for not releasing body-camera footage from controversial interventions in which ICE teams' use of force resulted in deaths. The report argued that the agency's policy created the impression that footage could be released when doing so served ICE's interests.
Two people died in July
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo died on July 7 after ICE officers opened fire in Houston, Texas. Araujo was identified as a Mexican citizen who had lived in the United States for more than 30 years.
In an incident in Biddeford, Maine, on July 13, Colombian citizen Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero also died after ICE teams opened fire.
The death in Biddeford was one of at least nine cases involving deaths resulting from the use of force by ICE teams since immigration policies in the United States began to become more restrictive last year.
