Associate Professor of Urban Planning Amada Armenta spoke to the Los Angeles Times about privacy and accountability concerns regarding the recent announcement that U.S. Border Patrol agents and officers will soon begin wearing body cameras as they patrol the southwestern and northern borders. Following other local and state departments that have adopted body cameras, the policy change is meant to improve oversight of the agency and reduce the use of force by officers. Customs and Border Protection expects to deploy 6,000 cameras by the end of the year. However, some immigration experts are concerned about the fact that agents will be responsible for activating their own cameras. “It’ll be very easy for agents to claim that they forgot to turn on their cameras,” Armenta said, adding that it will be hard for migrants and others to counter officers without a recorded version of events.
Associate Professor of Urban Planning
Amada Armenta’s research examines the connections between the immigration enforcement system and the criminal justice system, and the implications of...
