Rep. Menefee Reacts to DHS's Failure to Equip Agents Who Killed a Houston Man with Body Cameras
HOUSTON, TX — Today, Congressman Christian D. Menefee (TX-18) issued the following statement in response to reports that the ICE agents involved in the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo were not equipped with body-worn cameras, and to the Department of Homeland Security's attempt to blame Democrats for that failure.
“If these ICE agents didn’t have cameras, it’s because Trump and Republicans didn’t want them to have them.
ICE is the highest funded law enforcement agency in America. Their own director testified to Congress that they got $75 billion in surge funding alone last year, on top of their annual budget. They hired thousands of new agents last year. They found money for detention centers, for signing bonuses, for a hiring spree, and for enhanced enforcement operations. But they refused to spend that money on body worn cameras for all their officers.
That was by design. ICE doesn’t want Americans to have evidence of its crimes. Democrats fought to make body cameras a condition of DHS getting any funding at all. Trump and Republicans said no. And Trump’s tried to cut ICE’s camera funding from $20 million to $5 million. Republicans backed the cut. Democrats fought to stop it.
ICE killed a man in Houston. He got pulled over going to his job and he never came home. His family deserves the truth, and Houstonians aren’t buying ICE’s lies cooked up in Washington Give us the names of every ICE officer on scene and make clear whether any had cameras. Tell us which ICE officers doing enforcement operations in Houston did have cameras. Tell us who approved this operation.
Houston is done accepting excuses from an agency that has more money than it knows what to do with and still can’t manage basic accountability,” said Rep. Menefee.
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