Combating cross-border criminal activity is a critical component of the overall safety, security and well-being of our nation.

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ERO is one of ICE’s three operational directorates and the principal federal law enforcement authority in charge of domestic immigration enforcement. ERO’s mission is to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of U.S. communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws, and its primary areas of focus are interior enforcement operations, management of the agency’s detained and non-detained populations, and repatriation of noncitizens who have received final orders of removal. ERO’s workforce consists of more than 7,700 law enforcement and non-law enforcement support personnel across 25 domestic field offices and 208 locations nationwide, 30 overseas postings, and multiple temporary duty travel assignments along the border.

RCMP Chief Supt. Holly Turton, co-chair of that committee, said the Mounties have conducted a privacy impact assessment on BWCs to answer questions about whether to blur or redact images of people who appear in footage, but are not associated with an incident, for example.

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Detainers are critical public safety tools because they focus enforcement resources on removable noncitizens who have been arrested for criminal activity. Detainers increase the safety of all parties involved — ERO personnel, law enforcement officials, removable noncitizens and the public — by allowing an arrest to be made in a secure and controlled custodial setting as opposed to at-large within the community. Because detainers result in the direct transfer of a noncitizen from state or local custody to ERO custody, they also minimize the potential that an individual will reoffend. Additionally, detainers conserve scarce government resources by allowing ERO to take criminal noncitizens into custody directly rather than expending resources locating these individuals at-large.

Earlier this year, the Vancouver Police Department’s six-month, 85-camera pilot program came into full swing. Howard Tran, superintendent, called the initiative “long overdue” in an increasingly more complex policing environment that includes the pandemic, gang violence, the toxic drug crisis, and a number of mental health concerns.

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Learn more about ICE’s mission to increase public safety in our New England communities on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @EROBoston.

British Columbia announce province-wide protocols and standards for the police use of BCWs in 2019, but to date, Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth has said the decision to use them will remain in the hands of individual police agencies.

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With two municipal police forces in B.C. now using body-worn cameras, the B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police is touting the benefits of the technology, and reassuring the public of its work toward consistency in implementation province-wide.

“It allowed them to look at what they were actually doing out there and have real-time examples of their interactions with the public. It allows our organization to look at whether we’re using use of force appropriately,” Sidhu said.

ICE identifies and apprehends removable noncitizens, detains these individuals and removes illegal noncitizens from the United States.

The provincial standards state that a privacy impact assessment must be completed and approved prior to the deployment of the gear. The precise circumstances under which they may be used and information on the policy, must also be made public.

According to Delta’s deputy police chief, Harj Sidhu, internal and external feedback on the Delta Police Department’s use of the cameras has been positive, with approval ratings of more than 90 per cent. Officers are also learning from the footage they collect, he added.

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At a press conference Thursday, the association said widespread adoption of body-worn cameras — or BCWs — will improve transparency and accountability, and likely lead to more timely resolution of complaints against officers.

“Batista has been accused of very serious crimes, including assault and battery involving strangulation and a firearm,” said ERO Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde. “This is not someone you want to release into the community, so ERO Boston lodged an immigration detainer against him with the Roxbury District Court — a simple request for law enforcement officers to hold him in custody for a short time so our officers could arrest him in a safe, controlled setting. Unfortunately, the detainer was not honored, putting everyone in the community and our officers at risk.”

“When police are conducting themselves in public with the authorities and powers that they have, when they’re doing it on camera, this reassures the public that they’re doing it in as a professional way as possible,” Eby said. “It has advantages for the police, has advantages for the public — certainly I’m supportive.”

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Tape collected has also contributed to swift resolution of police complaints and provided additional evidence and context in court proceedings, he said. The force currently has 21 BWCs in the field, but is deploying 16 more this year.

ERO lodges immigration detainers against those who have been arrested for criminal activity and taken into custody by state or local law enforcement. Detainers are requests from ICE to state or local law enforcement agencies asking them to notify ICE as early as possible before they release a removable noncitizen from their custody.

Members of the public can report crimes and suspicious activity by dialing 866-DHS-2-ICE (866-347-2423) or completing the online tip form.

Critics of body-worn cameras have expressed concerns about their possible use as a surveillance tool, particularly on members of racialized and vulnerable communities, as well as the privacy implications of collection, storage and use of the footage. Some have also cited a lack of concrete evidence that the cameras would achieve their policy objectives, or that other alternatives could not achieve the same outcomes.

Both Sidhu and Tran sit on the B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police’s BWC committee, which is working towards a standardized framework and consistency in implementation of the gear, if it’s deployed province-wide.

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“We know we can never take this for granted,” Tran said. “This technology, until now, has remained largely cost prohibitive. We launched this program after more than a year of planning and extensive consultation with community members … we will use the results from our pilot to determine if we should embarked on a full scale implementation to all frontline VPD police officers.”

SEVP is a part of the National Security Investigations Division and acts as a bridge for government organizations that have an interest in information on nonimmigrants whose primary reason for coming to the United States is to be students.

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Footage must be stored with restricted access and not altered at any time, and may only be retained for one year from the date it was recorded, then it must be deleted, the rules state.

“The RCMP has also created operational policy in relation to body-worn cameras that provides clear guidance and direction to police officers on how body worn cameras are to be employed,” Turton said. “This policy is available to the public on our RCMP website. This will ensure that there won’t be indiscriminate recordings of the public and that officers will be required, when possible, to inform the public when they are recording.”

BOSTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston arrested Julio Esteban Batista-Castillo, 24, in Boston Nov. 18. The Roxbury District Court in Boston had arraigned him that same day on multiple assault and battery charges, kidnapping, malicious destruction of property, breaking and entering and home invasion before releasing him. His arraignment came more than a year after he unlawfully entered the United States in January 2023.

The RCMP has used BWCs in a limited capacity since 2010, and in 2020, ramped it up. The national policing agency plans to roll out up to 15,000 BWCs to frontline officers across the country after field testing in Nova Scotia, Alberta and Nunavut.

ICE's ERO officers uphold United States immigration laws by focusing on individuals who present the greatest risk to national security, public safety or border security.