Democrats Fear Body Cameras Could Be Ice’s New Mass Surveillance Tool

A push to put body cameras on all ICE agents has Democrats running headlong into a new problem: fear that the technology will provide another avenue for mass surveillance of protesters.

Congressional Democratic leaders have made universal use of body cameras one of their prime demands for imposing accountability on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, especially after federal agents fatally shot two American citizens in Minneapolis. But after an outcry from privacy advocates that surveillance tools will allow ICE agents to identify and track protesters, Democrats are also calling for restrictions on how the body cameras can be used.

Lawmakers and legal observers have accused ICE of leveraging a variety of cameras to surveil protesters, feeding pictures into license plate readers and facial recognition systems. Democrats now worry that the body cameras they’re demanding could be used for similar purposes.

Democrats have proposed legislation to limit ICE’s use of facial recognition, but the proposals are unlikely to advance without bipartisan support.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer say they want to tack on restrictions to how ICE can use body camera footage, according to a letter sent to Republican leadership on Wednesday night.

“Prohibit tracking, creating or maintaining databases of individuals participating in First Amendment activities,” the letter says.

It’s unclear how the request for new limits on surveillance will affect ongoing negotiations with Republicans to pass a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. Republicans already agreed to provide more funding for body cameras for ICE officers before Democrats began pushing for limits on how the images are used.

A spokesperson for Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) told POLITICO that Democrats are lining up behind leadership to push for the restrictions, fueled by reports of ICE tracking protesters. DHS launched an internal investigation on ICE’s use of surveillance after Warner sent a letter flagging privacy worries.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who proposed a ban on ICE agents using facial recognition, also supported surveillance limits on body cameras.

“Obviously we want them to be wearing body cameras, but we would want restrictions placed on what that information could be used for,” Markey said. “We want to make sure that we have the accountability for how these officers conduct themselves on the streets of our country, but we don’t want it in turn to be used as a way of coming back and suppressing free speech.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump would not accept any deals that undermine ICE’s enforcement capabilities.

"I know Sen. Schumer and Leader Jeffries sent over a very long list of demands, some of which the administration is willing to discuss. Others don't seem like they are grounded in any common sense and they are non-starters for this administration," she said at a press conference on Thursday.

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, did not specify if the administration was willing to discuss body camera limits.

DHS in an emailed statement to POLITICO criticized Democrats’ proposal to limit surveillance capabilities, saying “sanctuary politicians attempting to ban our federal law enforcement from using tools and technology to track down criminals” would make cities less safe.

The agency said its body cameras are not equipped with facial recognition, though Democrats fear the images could be downloaded and run through facial recognition at a later time. The agency also denied maintaining a database of “domestic terrorists” in response to videos of officers threatening legal observers with placements on such lists.

“We do of course monitor and investigate and refer all threats, assaults and obstruction of our officers to the appropriate law enforcement. Obstructing and assaulting law enforcement is a felony and a federal crime,” DHS said in a statement.

DHS’ policies on body cameras prohibit its agents from using body cameras solely for recording people engaging in First Amendment activities, such as people protesting ICE officers. But it does allow for filming during arrests, and the bulk of ICE’s filming of protesters have been during its enforcement operations.

Democrats’ new demands come after 29 tech and social justice organizations sent a letter to members of Congress on Jan. 28 warning that equipping ICE agents with body cameras will only lead to more surveillance.

“Democrats in Congress can't claim they're standing against ICE abuses if they're calling for more ICE-controlled cameras, which will inevitably be hooked into ICE's facial recognition and other surveillance tools. The shift in messaging from Democratic leadership shows they are feeling the heat on this,” Evan Greer, the director of the advocacy group Fight for the Future, told POLITICO in a statement.

A court filing in a lawsuit accusing ICE of violating protesters’ constitutional rights claims an agent told a legal observer they were using facial recognition and that a body camera was recording. Another filing in the same lawsuit noted another interaction in which an ICE agent told a protester, “We have your license plate, we know where to find you.”

“We’ve seen multiple examples of ICE and border patrol agents filming protesters and legal observers, forcing them to submit to face scans, detaining them when they refuse, even hinting at a database of protesters,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said at a press conference Wednesday.