Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who were involved in the fatal shooting of Silverio Villegas González in Chicago last week were not wearing body cameras at the time, according to a senior Department of Homeland Security official.
In the wake of the shooting, immigration advocates, family members and local elected officials had called for ICE to release body camera footage, as well as any photos.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, called for ICE to turn over any pictures or video from the fatal shooting and at a press event Monday reacted to what he said was a lack of information about the incident, saying, “This is the most unusual situation I’ve seen in my entire lifetime, where we have no transparency and the federal government is not policing itself.”
Villegas González, a 38-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico who was described by his family as a “devoted father, cherished friend and kind soul,” was killed Friday morning in Franklin Park, a suburb of Chicago.
According to ICE, officers pulled Villegas González over, but he resisted arrest and attempted to flee the scene. As his car moved forward, an ICE officer standing by the passenger side of Villegas-Gonzalez’s car was dragged, surveillance footage from a nearby business broadcast by CBS News shows. ICE says the officer feared for his life and discharged his weapon, killing Villegas González.
ICE said the officer who was dragged was left with serious injuries but was in stable condition on Friday. ICE has also said he had a history of reckless driving; he had no criminal history, however.
In a statement provided to NBC News, Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, D-Ill., reacted to the lack of body camera footage, saying, “If an officer is authorized to use force, they should be wearing and activating body-worn cameras. Period.”
The Village of Franklin Park said in a statement that the FBI’s Chicago field office is in charge of the ongoing investigation.
ICE body cam stance
In January 2024, under the Biden administration, ICE rolled out a body camera policy that called for cameras to be worn “in all aspects of ICE enforcement activities.”
An updated copy of the policy from February 2025, just after the start of the Trump administration, that was released under a Freedom of Information Act request says that ICE officers are required to wear body cameras and that the cameras should be activated “as soon as practicable at the beginning of an Enforcement Activity and deactivation when the activity is concluded.” It notes, however, that body cameras had not yet been distributed across all of ICE, and so stipulates that the requirement only applies to officers in places where the cameras had been given out.
The senior DHS official said body cameras are not agencywide. ICE did not respond to a question about how many of its officers currently have body cameras.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told NBC News that Friday’s fatal shooting is under review by the agency.
“Every use of force incident and any discharge of an ICE firearm must be properly reported and reviewed by the agency in accordance with agency policy, procedure, and guidelines,” McLaughlin wrote in an email. “All shootings are initially reviewed by the appropriate federal, state, local, or tribal law enforcement agency principally charged with first response to the incident. Following a review of the incident by the appropriate investigative agency, ICE will conduct an independent review of the critical incident.”
McLaughlin added that ICE officers are trained to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve situations and to de-escalate encounters.
When ICE rolled out its body worn camera policy in 2024 the agency wrote that it lacked resources to outfit its entire workforce with cameras. Since July, ICE has become flush with billions in new funding from the tax and spending legislation known as the “Big Beautiful Bill.”
The agency has considered developing a policy whereby body camera footage would be reviewed and released in “critical incidents,” according to Caleb Vitello, who oversaw the body camera policy rollout for ICE and later served as the agency’s acting director. He now oversees the training of new ICE officers and had previously spoken to NBC News about the policy in a brief interview at a training facility.
ICE rarely releases body camera footage from immigration enforcement operations. One of the only times this year when it did release such footage was after members of Congress were arrested when they attempted to enter and inspect an ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey in May.
