What you need to know
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Monday, February 3, that all federal immigration agents on the ground in Minneapolis will be equipped with body-worn cameras.
Noem said the changes will take effect immediately and the program will be expanded across the country once funding is secured.
“We will rapidly acquire body cameras and deploy them to DHS law enforcement agencies across the country,” Noem said in a post on X.
The announcement comes amid the fallout from the shooting deaths of two Americans by federal immigration agents during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis last month.
President Donald Trump and his administration are under fire over the killings of Renee Good, a mother of three, and Alex Preti, a 37-year-old Department of Veterans Affairs nurse. Their killings sparked outrage and sparked protests.
The accounts of the shootings by Noem, Trump and other federal officials are at times contradicted by local officials and witness videos, prompting calls for accountability among some Republicans.
Hours after Preti’s death, Noem “arrived with a weapon and dozens of rounds of ammunition and attacked the officers,” the statement said, prompting officers to take action to “protect lives.”
The footage shows Preti holding a cellphone, not a gun, before agents drag her to the ground and shoot her. Video from the scene shows Preti was in possession of a weapon at the time, but was not holding it. He had a permit to carry a concealed weapon. He was shot and killed after being disarmed and restrained, according to a New York Times video analysis.
It is unclear whether any of the ICE officers at the scene of Goode’s murder were wearing cameras. DHS announced last week that it had body camera footage related to Preeti’s murder.
“Body camera footage from multiple angles is available and is currently being reviewed by law enforcement,” DHS said in a statement.
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President Trump expressed support for the new development Monday, saying it was “not my decision,” and said body cameras “tend to be good for law enforcement in general because people can’t lie about what’s going on.”
In response to Noem’s announcement, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz told X that body cameras should have been installed “long before they killed two Americans.”
The Justice Department has opened a federal civil rights investigation into Preti’s shooting death, but it is not investigating Goode.
Last year, Congress approved $170 billion in additional funding for DHS over four years.
