Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said Sunday he is not opposed to requiring that federal immigration officers wear body cameras, after Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) proposed such a measure last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a problem with that personally,\u201d Johnson, the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told host Dana Bash on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under federal law, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel are not required to wear body cameras when conducting operations. A majority of states require local police officers to use body cameras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday, Schumer proposed a series of reforms to ICE and CBP \u2014 including body camera requirements, an end to roving patrols, elevated warrant requirements and a measure to ban officers from wearing masks. Democrats on Capitol Hill have pushed for reforming the agencies in the wake of the fatal shootings of two Minnesotans by federal immigration officers last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese are commonsense reforms,\u201d Schumer said in announcing his list. \u201cIf Republicans refuse to support them, they are choosing chaos over order, plain and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members in both chambers of Congress will negotiate on the proposals this week, as the House is set to take up the Senate-passed package to fund the government. The Senate deal includes a two-week continuing resolution that funds the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and CBP, until Feb. 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Johnson, though, vocally opposed the New York Democrat\u2019s proposal to require that ICE and CBP officials first obtain a judicial warrant before entering a person\u2019s home. A memo signed by acting ICE Director Todd Lyons last May, which was obtained by The Associated Press, allows ICE officers to enter a home in order to carry out an arrest if they have an administrative warrant and a final order of removal issued by a judge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have millions of cases. So demanding judicial warrants is their sneaky way of basically neutering our ability to enforce any immigration laws,\u201d Johnson said, referring to Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIs it perfect? Absolutely not,\u201d he later added on the Trump administration\u2019s immigration enforcement operations. \u201cCan things be tightened up? Sure. But the way to tighten it up is not to neuter our ability to enforce our immigration laws. And that\u2019s what Democrats want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n