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'Completely Absurd': Top Dem Calls Out Susan Collins Over ICE Body Cams In Maine Killing

WASHINGTON ― Democrats are calling B.S. on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) after she blamed them for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot a man in Maine on Monday for not wearing a body camera.

Talking to reporters Tuesday, Collins said the ICE agent wasn't wearing a body camera because federal immigration enforcement agents still don't have them.

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"They don't have them yet," she said. "The orders were placed, but they couldn't [process] the orders when the government was shut down. That delayed the purchase and deployment of body-worn cameras."

The Maine Republican, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said President Donald Trump signed a law in April that provided $20 million for body cameras for all ICE agents. However, the cameras were never distributed because the Department of Homeland Security went unfunded for months, the result of a partisan fight over tying new ICE funding to basic safeguards on agents.

"What appears to have happened is that there now has been ... somewhat of an increase of ICE activities before the additional training and body-worn cameras were deployed," she said. "But to be fair to the Department of Homeland Security, they couldn't enter into contracts when the government was shut down by the Democrats."

Democrats promptly responded to Collins' remarks, calling them a defiance of reality.

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Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the appropriations panel, said Republicans gave ICE tens of billions of dollars last summer when they passed Trump's so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, money that could have been used at any time to deploy body cameras nationwide.

Specifically, that bill made $29.85 billion available to ICE for a wide range of things, including body cameras. It also provided $10 billion to the DHS secretary for "border support," essentially a slush fund the secretary can use for a broad array of purposes.

"This administration instead blew tax dollars on private jets and new souped-up, gold-coated SUVs that the agency cannot even use," Murray told HuffPost in a statement. "The idea that Democrats are to blame for the Trump administration's failure to deploy body cameras to the field and to protect people from out-of-control agents that they have failed to properly train is completely absurd."

The problem hasn't been funding, as ICE has more money "than most modern militaries," she added. "It's been this administration's refusal to quickly put in place basic accountability measures like requiring body cameras."

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Staff on the House Homeland Security Committee concurred with Murray.

"Body cameras are purchased. ICE has them. Guidance is written. They're just dragging their feet on deploying them," said these aides, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

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Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) blamed Democrats for the fact that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot a man in Maine on Monday was not wearing a body camera.

It's been months since the Trump administration vowed to take fast action on body cameras.

On Feb. 2, days after ICE agents fatally shot VA nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem declared she would "rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country."

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That did not happen.

Pretti's killing came weeks after ICE agents fatally shot another Minneapolis resident, poet Renee Good. Minnesota officials announced Tuesday that they had finally obtained body camera footage and other evidence from both of those killings, after federal law enforcement officials spent months refusing to cooperate with them in their investigation.

An ICE agent fatally shot Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian national who had a U.S. work authorization and a Social Security number, on Monday in Maine. He leaves behind a partner and a 3-year-old daughter.

Collins said Guerrero's death "appears to be a horrible tragedy."

"We don't have all the facts yet, and that's why the investigation, which is being conducted by the state attorney general's office, by the FBI, and by the independent Office of Inspector General out of Boston, is so important," said Collins. "But it's always a tragedy when someone is killed."