Immigration Enforcement Staff Body Camera Accountability Act in plain language
1: Short title
This section says the Act may be cited as the Immigration Enforcement Staff Body Camera Accountability Act.
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1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Immigration Enforcement Staff Body Camera Accountability Act .
2: Use of body cameras by immigration enforcement staff
This section would require the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to ensure that all immigration enforcement staff wear body cameras while engaged in official operations, by no later than the date the rule described below is finalized. To carry this out, the ICE Director and CBP Commissioner would have to establish policies, procedures, and best practices for body camera use, including training; policies for using artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology to record or review body camera footage, including policies that acknowledge the limitations and inaccuracies of that technology; and policies and procedures for carrying out the adverse actions described below. Body cameras worn by immigration enforcement staff would have to be turned on at the start of each staff member's shift and stay on for the whole shift. Footage would have to be made available to each party to an administrative proceeding, civil action, or criminal prosecution that the footage pertains to, following requirements the Secretary of Homeland Security sets by rule; if footage is not made available, that party could notify the ICE Director or CBP Commissioner in writing to trigger an adverse action. Within 60 days of enactment, the Secretary of Homeland Security would have to start a rulemaking on body camera use and on providing footage, consistent with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights' May 2015 Civil Rights Principles for Body Worn Cameras and the Project on Government Oversight's April 2018 Three Key Reforms for Facial Recognition and Body Cameras; the proposed rule would also have to include a comparison with the American Civil Liberties Union's July 2021 Model Act for Regulating the Use of Wearable Body Cameras by Law Enforcement and with a 2016 New Hampshire law on body-worn cameras for law enforcement officers (2016 N.H. Legis. Serv. 322, codified at N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. section 105-D). A staff member whose body camera fails to record because the always-on requirement was violated would be subject to furlough, a reduction in pay or grade, or a suspension of up to 30 days under subchapter II of chapter 75 of title 5 of the United States Code, as the ICE Director or CBP Commissioner determines appropriate; if a camera does not record at a time it was required to be active, the Secretary of Homeland Security could not find that the camera malfunctioned unless the staff member submits evidence sufficient to establish that a malfunction occurred. The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security would have to conduct an annual privacy impact assessment of how body camera footage is collected, maintained, stored, and disseminated. No additional funding would be authorized to carry out this section; it would have to be carried out using amounts otherwise made available for these purposes. For purposes of this section, immigration enforcement staff means all agents and officers of CBP, all agents and officers of ICE, and all staff at any immigration detention facility who interact with detainees.
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2. Use of body cameras by immigration enforcement staff (a) In general Not later than the date that the rule under subsection (e) is finalized, the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shall ensure that all immigration enforcement staff wear body cameras when such agents and officers are engaged in official operations. (b) Implementation To carry out this section, the Director of ICE and the Commissioner of CBP shall establish— (1) policies, procedures, and best practices for the use of body cameras by all immigration enforcement staff, including training relating to the use of such cameras; (2) policies, procedures, and best practices for the use of artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology to record or review body camera footage by immigration enforcement staff, including policies that acknowledge the limitations and inaccuracies of artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology; and (3) policies and procedures for carrying out adverse actions under subsection (f). (c) Always-On Body cameras worn by immigration enforcement staff shall be turned on at the beginning of the shift of such staff and shall remain on for the duration of such shifts. (d) Availability of body camera footage Footage collected by such a body camera shall be made available to each party to any administrative proceeding, civil action, or criminal prosecution to which such footage pertains in accordance with such requirements as the Secretary of Homeland Security shall by rule require under subsection (e). If such footage is not made available, such a party may notify the Director of ICE or the Commissioner of CBP, as the case may be, in writing for purposes of instigating an adverse action described in subsection (f). (e) Rulemaking Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall commence a rulemaking regarding the use of body cameras and the provision of footage in accordance with subsection (d) that is consistent with the Civil Rights Principles for Body Worn Cameras of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, May 2015, and Three Key Reforms for Facial Recognition and Body Cameras of the Project on Government Oversight, April 2018. The proposed rule shall include a comparison with the American Civil Liberties Union’s July 2021 Model Act for Regulating the Use of Wearable Body Cameras by Law Enforcement and An Act Relative to Body-Worn Cameras for Law Enforcement Officers (2016 N.H. Legis. Serv. 322 (codified at N.H. REV. STAT. ANN. § 105–D (2016))). (f) Adverse actions for absence of body camera footage Any immigration enforcement staff member whose body camera does not record footage because of a violation of subsection (c) shall be subject to furlough, reduction in pay or grade, or a suspension of up to 30 days under subchapter II of chapter 75 of title 5, United States Code, as the Director of ICE or the Commissioner of CBP (as the case may be) determines appropriate. If a body camera does not record at a time when the camera is required to be active, the Secretary of Homeland Security may not determine that the camera suffered a malfunction unless the member submits evidence sufficient to establish that a malfunction occurred. (g) Annual assessments The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security shall conduct an annual privacy impact assessment of how body camera footage is collected, maintained, stored, and disseminated. (h) Prohibition on new funding No additional funding is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section. This section shall be carried out using amounts otherwise made available for such purposes. (i) Definition In this section, the term immigration enforcement staff means the following: (1) All agents and officers of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (2) All agents and officers of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (3) All staff at any immigration detention facility who interact with detainees.