Trump just cut major funding for this piece of equipment that is central to police reform efforts

President Donald Trump’s administration just took a sharp turn against a major police reform tool, actively opposing efforts to expand the use of body cameras for immigration officers and urging Congress to slash program funding by a massive 75%, as reported by Reuters. This move is a huge deal, especially since video footage has become absolutely central to ensuring accountability during high-stakes encounters.

If you’ve been following the news, you know that cameras worn by officers have long been considered the gold standard for police reform. Video footage provides an objective check on official statements, which is crucial because, in several recent incidents, official statements have portrayed those shot by immigration officers as the aggressors. For instance, bystander video captured the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

The administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2026 called for freezing the expansion of the body camera program for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and drastically cutting the funds needed to run it. While they plan to maintain the existing 4,200 body-worn cameras, the proposal would cut the staff managing the program from 22 employees down to just three.

This massive reduction essentially guts the capacity to run the program effectively, even if they claim it’s a more “streamlined” approach

It’s clear the administration is moving against the grain. Darius Reeves, who used to direct ICE’s Baltimore field office, noted that the body camera pilot program started slow under the previous administration in 2024, but it “died on the vine” entirely under President Trump. That pilot program had previously deployed cameras to officers in five cities: Baltimore, Buffalo, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

Despite the proven need for transparency, top Trump officials have been quick to dismiss the deceased in violent encounters as aggressors rather than calling for thorough investigations. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of the president’s immigration agenda, even took to social media hours after Alex Pretti was fatally shot by a Border Patrol agent, calling Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and a “would-be assassin.”

In response to inquiries about the cuts, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson was staunchly defensive of the officers. She said that ICE officers “act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities.” Jackson added that anyone “pointing the finger at law enforcement officers instead of the criminals is simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens.”

The lack of video evidence is already a problem. Though Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which is Border Patrol’s parent agency, has 13,400 cameras for some 45,000 officers, we can’t be sure they’re always used. Verified video from the scene of the recent fatal shooting showed that at least three of the eight or more Border Patrol agents there were wearing cameras.

Crucially, however, it couldn’t be confirmed if the cameras were turned on, or if the agents directly involved in the physical encounter were wearing them.