NOT CAMERA READY

Insiders Reveal ICE Chaos Caused by Trump’s DHS Chief

The delay in rolling out body cameras for ICE agents has caused concern.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has baffled department insiders by offering an unnecessarily long timeline to equip federal immigration agents with body cameras.

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE

Trump’s Deportation Ploy Blows Up in His Face

Isabel van Brugen

Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been under intense pressure to wear body cameras as the administration carries out President Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation campaign, which has resulted in the deaths of two U.S. citizens.

The Department of Homeland Security promised to equip ICE agents with the devices within 60 days after the fatal shootings in July of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine. The company Axon was awarded a $13.1 million contract to provide cameras for every ICE employee.

As of late August, enough Axon cameras equipped with microphones had been distributed to every ICE field office in the country, and agents were already being trained on how to use them, NBC News reported.

But speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mullin said he was “pretty sure” that agents would be equipped with body cameras “by the end of September.”

He also said he’s in talks with Motorola to provide microphones for the cameras and would meet with the company’s CEO on Wednesday.

The Axon cameras, however, already came equipped with microphones, according to a senior Trump administration official and a Department of Homeland Security official.

Play Video

The secretary’s comments are raising concerns that Mullin is trying to delay equipping all ICE officers with body cameras, the officials told NBC.

Reached by the network for comment, an ICE spokesperson declined to address the discrepancies.

“ICE has acquired devices to equip all ICE officers and agents nationwide with body cameras,” the spokesperson said. “Training required to equip individual officers remains ongoing, and we expect to complete this training soon.”

The Daily Beast has also reached out to ICE for comment.

Axon had also won an ICE contract for body cameras in 2024 under a Biden administration pilot program, meaning agents were already familiar with how they work, NBC reported.

Axon also has a special certification for federal law enforcement technology guaranteeing it can’t be hacked.

Motorola’s body cam technology doesn’t have the certification, but the company has nevertheless spent more than $1 million lobbying DHS and other government agencies for contracts, according to NBC.

ICED OUT

Trump’s ICE Pick Faces Inside Revolt From Own Agency

Sarah-Jane Collins

Introducing a Motorola device would also require training ICE agents to use both camera types.

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Janna Brancolini

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.