DHS chief Kristi Noem OKs body cameras for feds in Minneapolis as Dems push for more reforms

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has come out in favor of at least one reform that Democrats are demanding — in one of the most turbulent cities where the Trump administration has been engaging in immigration enforcement.

Noem posted Monday on X that after speaking with border czar Tom Homan, Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Todd Lyons and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, “every officer in the field in Minneapolis” will now be wearing body cameras.

“As funding is available, the body camera program will be expanded nationwide. We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country,” the DHS chief added.

Universal body cameras are just one of many proposals congressional Democrats are hoping to tuck into a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security this month — following the fatal shootings of two anti-ICE agitators in Minneapolis by federal agents.

President Trump struck a deal last week with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to pass a stopgap funding bill for the embattled department.

That will give negotiators more time to hash out a host of Democratic proposals to ban ICE agents from wearing masks, force them to identify themselves and require them to secure judicial warrants for removals.

On Monday, Trump appeared to endorse Noem’s move to deploy the body cameras.

“I leave it to her,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “They generally tend to be good for law enforcement because people can’t lie about what’s happening.”

“So it’s, generally speaking, I think 80% good for law enforcement. But if she wants to do that, I’m okay with it,” Trump added.

The House will be voting on the stopgap funding measure this week, while the Democratic reforms to DHS are being deliberated by members from both parties.

Anti-ICE activists have taken to the streets of Minneapolis in protest of removal operations that have included at times the wrongful detentions of US citizens and the execution of warrants that led to arrests inside homes.

Lyons recently broadened agents’ ability to round up illegal aliens through the use of administrative warrants, according to a memo reported by The New York Times, an authority that has already been used to make some home arrests.

DHS agents last month shot and killed two demonstrators last month — Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37 — as they were impeding enforcement.

Good accelerated her car in the direction of an agent before he pulled the trigger. Pretti was armed with a loaded handgun and got into a struggle with agents before two began opening fire.

Both shootings are now under federal investigation and served as a rallying point for congressional Democrats opposed to Trump’s immigration agenda.

Schumer took a victory lap on Friday after the Senate passed a bill that had stripped immigration enforcement funding from a larger package of appropriations “so we can overhaul DHS to rein in ICE and end the violence.”

The Democratic proposals for a revised DHS funding bill also include demands to “end roving patrols” and establish a universal code of conduct for all federal law enforcement officers.

Read More : DHS chief Kristi Noem OKs body cameras for feds in Minneapolis as Dems push for more reforms