Twin Cities activists demand ICE body camera usage after killings in Maine, Texas

Is every ICE field officer in Minnesota operating with a body camera? The federal agency, as of Wednesday evening, won't say. 

For more than a week, WCCO has repeatedly sent inquiries to ICE's Midwest press team to inquire about the number of body cameras available to agents who report to the St. Paul Field Office. After two days of silence, an unnamed spokesperson said on July 17, "We have received your request and will respond as timely as possible."

One week later, there has been no further information. The questions come as ICE shot and killed two people this month; in both instances, the officers involved were not wearing body cameras, meaning there is no footage to substantiate ICE's version of events in the deaths of Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas. 

In February, then Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem stated that "effective immediately, we are deploying body cameras to every officer in the field in Minneapolis." In a court filing, the St. Paul field office director had stated that it would take at least 180 days, or about six months, to equip the thousands of agents that were operating in Minnesota. As of January, he stated that there were no cameras or related infrastructure in St. Paul. 

Now that about six months have passed, the agency has not provided updated information about the body camera program in Minnesota, though there is evidence that some devices are now in the field. During an operation in Bemidji on July 16, Bemidji Pioneer editor and photographer Annalise Braught captured images that appear to show at least two officers wearing body cameras. 

On Face the Nation this past Sunday, Border Czar Tom Homan said that government shutdowns related to debates over federal immigration enforcement delayed the agency's ability to roll out body cameras nationwide. Prior to the shutdown, the Trump administration had initially proposed cutting funding and staffing for ICE's body-worn camera program. Congress ultimately approved $20 million in extra funding for DHS body cameras as part of a bill to end the partial government shutdown in April.

"Now we have the funding after reconciliation. The cameras have been purchased; right now they're training the trainer and deploying the cameras nationwide," Homan said. 

In Minnesota, the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good was not wearing a body camera, though he was recording the incident with a smartphone. The border patrol agents who killed Alex Pretti were wearing body cameras, footage that Hennepin County prosecutors are now reviewing.

At Pretti's memorial site on Wednesday, local leaders and activists gathered to demand that Minnesota's congressional representatives do more to establish oversight of ICE operations. The group of four accepted the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award on behalf of the Twin Cities last month. They said that body cameras ultimately don't go far enough. 

"We're not talking about only cameras, and body cameras and things like that. It's the whole system has to be checked. Everything has to be checked. Congress has to go deeper into this," Imam Yusuf Abdulle said, who serves as the Executive Director of the Islamic Association of North America.