Turns Out, ICE Already Has Body Cameras. They Just Don’t Bother Using Them.

There was some infuriating news out of the world of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this weekend that didn’t exactly get enough attention amid complaints of choking Canadian wildfire smoke, surging Iranian hostilities and a World Cup final. Put simply, that news is this: It turns out federal immigration agents of ICE involved in the shooting death of Maine resident Joan/Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who were reported over and over to not be in possession of body cameras with which the incident could have been recorded, did indeed have cameras strapped to them after all, cameras that simply weren’t turned on. Why not? Would you believe it likely comes down to not wanting to use the cameras they already have because they’re waiting for access to different cameras purchased in a contract that directly benefits President Donald Trump monetarily?

An investigation from The Intercept spoke to off-the-record ICE officials, all of whom confirmed that ICE agents in Maine and likely in Texas (where the shooting death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo happened less than a week earlier) had access to a camera device on their body, but that camera could not actually be used to record anything because the government isn’t paying for that functionality. Specifically, the immigration agents in Maine were reportedly wearing Motorola SVX Video Remote Speaker Microphones, which are wireless radio mics that also function as a body camera. The Motorola devices are used by agents as two-way mics, but the camera lenses are covered because ICE’s contract with Motorola–despite being worth more than $100 million–does not include the use of those cameras they’re already wearing. As one ICE official told The Intercept, referring to the Motorola devices: “They have multiple functionalities. However, we are currently only using them as mics because of the AXON contract.”

“The Intercept identified the accessories worn by ICE officers on the scene of the Maine shooting as Motorola SVX Video Remote Speaker Microphones, a wireless radio mic with one other important feature: a camera. (Motorola did not respond to a request to comment.)”

*taps post hard repeatedly*👇🏿

[image or embed]

— spookyauntifah (@spookytifah.bsky.social) 8:17 AM · Jul 20, 2026

The aforementioned “AXON contract,” meanwhile, is with law enforcement technology company Axon, which is the producer of the Taser stun gun. They also have the exclusive contract to provide DHS and ICE with body cameras, even though the Trump administration attempted to entirely gut that body camera program at the start of Jan. 2026, only to find itself rapidly backpedaling following the shooting deaths of American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti during ICE’s reign of terror in Minnesota. Just last month, it was revealed that Axon might be awarded another $220 million stun gun contract by the federal government following an ICE request … and that none other than Donald Trump himself purchased up to $5 million in Axon stock in the two weeks before the new $220 million request became publicly known. You know, the sort of discovery that would have been the end of any past presidency.

The actual status of the Axon-provided body cameras, meanwhile, is a big mystery, one that Republicans on Capitol Hill have attempted to claim was vastly delayed by the spring’s DHS shutdown, despite the fact that ICE’s budget and operations were in no way actually impacted by the shutdown. Some of the cameras are no doubt already in circulation, although it’s impossible to say where. Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan, while making the weekend cable talk show rounds, told Face the Nation that “the cameras have been purchased right now,” and amusingly added that “they’re training the trainer in deploying the cameras nationwide.” Ah, so we just need to get past the “training the trainer” stage, eh?

Every ICE arrest team will now have an agent with a body camera, DHS says

www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-arr…

[image or embed]

— Mike Walker (@newnarrative.bsky.social) 12:37 AM · Jul 15, 2026

Here’s a crazy, left field type of suggestion: If it takes years to buy and distribute a new type of camera, what if ICE agents already in the field, making routinely deadly traffic stops, were allowed/required to make use of the cameras they’re already wearing? I realize that if we (the United States government) were paying Motorola for that right, it might make Trump’s investment in Axon slightly less profitable, but I think it might be worthwhile to have some actual evidence to point to the circumstances in the deaths of Guerrero or Araujo. You know, if ICE isn’t careful, people are going to start assuming that they don’t actually want to have running cameras on them?

Back in reality, ICE and DHS have of course fought the deployment of body cameras at every possible stop along the way, because video evidence is inherently inconvenient when you’re attempting to downplay the worst abuses committed by the psychopaths you’ve hired to be federal agents, men who are revealed after a deadly shooting to have long histories of domestic abuse and mental illness before the federal government pressed a gun into their hands. As previously mentioned, the Trump administration attempted to cut 75% of the budget out of the DHS body camera program at the start of 2026, only for the deaths of Good and Pretti in Minnesota to thrust the issue back into the spotlight. Following the deaths of Guerrero and Araujo, meanwhile, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin attempted to mollify the media by saying that ICE would immediately stop making the traffic stops that trigger an extremely obvious likelihood of deadly outcomes when federal agents constantly claim suspects are trying to “weaponize” their vehicle, only to be cut off by an irate Trump who threw him under the bus and demanded that the traffic stops continue less than 24 hours after Mullin had made his proclamation.

Said federal agencies have now also pivoted to claiming that they’re in favor of body cameras as well, despite not paying to activate the ones they’re already wearing and fighting tooth and nail for the last seven months to avoid wearing them. Homan, while on the same media tour this weekend, told Fox & Friends that ICE would now be requiring at least one officer involved in any traffic stop to be wearing an active body camera–at least until Trump notices and reverses that policy with a single Truth Social post. But as Homan claimed, trying to spin the idea of body cameras in a Fox-friendly way: “They exonerate more law enforcement than they convict, and I want officers to wear body cameras because I want the American people to see what the officers saw when they took that action.”

ICE officers to wear body cameras during vehicle stops, border czar says reut.rs/4yv2Lha

[image or embed]

— Reuters (@reuters.com) 12:30 PM · Jul 19, 2026

Except, you know, if you actually wanted the American people to see what had happened, you would have had the gun-wielding federal agents–especially the guy whose own family called him “extremely mentally ill”–turning on the cameras they were literally already wearing. Likewise, if you wanted the public to ever find out what had happened in these scenarios, the FBI wouldn’t be distributing orders to its agents that the bureau would no longer be investigating instances of ICE violence, because the results of those investigations could be used to prosecute federal agents for their conduct. Make no mistake: Even when the cameras have arrived, ICE will still find some way to avoid using them to capture anything incriminating.

Save our prediction, for posterity: Six months from now we’ll be in the middle of writing about another $200 million government contract necessary for a third party video data processing company to handle ICE body camera footage, with Donald Trump as a 10% stakeholder. At a time of extreme uncertainty, at least the graft is entirely dependable.