Democrats claimed they wanted body cameras on ICE, and now that it is coming to fruition thanks to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem mandating them for all officers around the country, Democrats are now not sure so they are a good thing after all.
They are claiming that ICE will use the body camera footage of protesters to identify them or something, and they now say they want restrictions on the body cameras.
Here’s what Politico write:
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.
This is bullcrap. There is no privacy issue here and if the body cameras help ICE do their job, then that just comes with the territory.
No, what I think is that Democrats know that these body cameras will really show the lunatics that are attacking ICE and that’s what they don’t want the world to see. They know many of these agitators aren’t peaceful and with body cameras exposing them, they can’t keep pretending they are peaceful.