Already a subscriber? Make sure to log into your account before viewing this content. You can access your account by hitting the “login” button on the top right corner. Still unable to see the content after signing in? Make sure your card on file is up-to-date.

ICE has rejected a recommendation from a government watchdog to use body cameras that automatically turn on when agents draw their weapons, as the agency faces growing scrutiny over a string of shootings by immigration officers.

Getting into it: The Government Accountability Office released a report Wednesday, requested by congressional Democrats, finding that ICE “has not implemented controls to help ensure compliance with activating cameras when required by policy.” Unlike Customs and Border Protection, which uses technology that switches cameras on when officers draw a gun or turn on emergency lights, ICE relies on agents to manually activate them. The GAO found that at six of the 10 locations it reviewed, agents at both agencies said they weren’t sure when they were required to record, describing the rules as “up to interpretation” with “gray areas,” and that ICE didn’t formally discipline a single agent over camera use from the time the program started through September 2025.

The Department of Homeland Security agreed to the GAO’s six other recommendations but rejected automatic activation, arguing it “presents operational risks” and could switch on by accident and capture conversations with informants or victims, or film bystanders exercising their First Amendment rights in places where cameras aren’t allowed. The GAO countered that DHS never offered any other way to make sure agents actually hit record. DHS says every ICE office had cameras by early August, though agents are still being trained to use them.

“ICE does not have similar automated control activities in place to help ensure that personnel activate their cameras as required by policy or to reliably monitor whether repeated instances of failure to activate occur,” the GAO wrote. “This presents the risk of personnel not capturing footage of incidents when they are required to do so.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said he’ll introduce legislation requiring automatic activation on all DHS body cameras, pointing to last month’s shooting of Wilber Garces Perez by an ICE agent in Austin, which he said wasn’t recorded.