FOCUS Act

Body cameras for federal immigration officers

This bill would require federal officers doing or supporting immigration enforcement to wear and operate body cameras. Cameras would need automatic activation, an audit log, GPS location, and LTE evidence upload. Recordings would be kept at least 1 year and could only be deleted after that unless they show use of force, events before or during an arrest or detention for a crime or attempted crime, or an encounter with a registered complaint. Footage would be kept at least 3 years if the recording officer, the subject (or their legal representative), a supervisor, an officer keeping it for training, a parent or guardian of a minor subject, or a deceased subject’s next of kin or designee asks for longer retention. Officers would have to document recording failures and explain interruptions, and intentionally turning off a camera could lead to discipline up to termination. Agencies would have to provide requested footage under the Freedom of Information Act, file annual unredacted reports to Congress and civil-rights offices about violations and discipline (with limited redactions by the DHS Inspector General), and the Secretary of Homeland Security would create an independent advisory panel on civil rights, privacy, technology, and oversight.