HR5653-119

What This Bill Does

The Trust Through Transparency Act adds body-camera rules to immigration enforcement. Covered immigration officers include ICE officers, CBP officers, and other individuals authorized or deputized to perform federal immigration enforcement functions. They must wear and operate body cameras during public immigration enforcement functions such as patrols, stops, arrests, searches, immigration-status interviews, raids, checkpoint inspections, and service of judicial or administrative warrants. ICE must generally keep footage for six months, delete it afterward, and keep it for at least three years when it captures use of force, crime-related arrests or attempted arrests, or encounters tied to complaints. Officers, superior officers, public subjects, parents or guardians of minor subjects, and next of kin for deceased subjects can request longer retention in specified circumstances. DHS must discipline noncompliance, report annually to congressional committees and the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, publish the report within 30 days, allow Inspector General redactions with justification, and create an advisory panel with civil rights, privacy, technology, and law-enforcement oversight expertise.

Who Benefits and How

People subject to public immigration enforcement benefit because encounters would be recorded and footage can be retained when force, arrests, complaints, minors, or deaths are involved. Civil rights oversight offices benefit from annual data on enforcement functions, noncompliance, and discipline. Covered immigration officers benefit when footage has evidentiary or exculpatory value and can be retained at their request. Congressional judiciary and homeland security committees benefit from public reports on compliance and remedial actions.

Who Bears the Burden and How

ICE enforcement officers must wear, operate, store, retain, and delete body-camera footage under statutory rules. CBP enforcement officers must follow body-camera rules when performing public immigration enforcement functions. DHS compliance managers must discipline noncompliance and track annual reporting metrics. DHS Inspector General staff must review public reports for sensitive operations, investigations, privacy, and redaction justifications.

Key Provisions

• Requires body cameras for covered officers during public immigration enforcement functions.
• Provides six-month default ICE retention and at least three-year retention for force, arrest, complaint, training, subject-request, minor, and deceased-subject footage.
• Requires administrative discipline for noncompliance, including reprimand, suspension, or other personnel actions.
• Requires annual congressional and public reports on enforcement functions, noncompliance, and remedial actions.
• Creates an independent advisory panel on body-camera and footage-management policies.