White House offers concession on body cameras in bid to end DHS shutdown

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: USA Today

March 17, 2026 Updated March 18, 2026, 10:36 a.m. ET


WASHINGTON ‒ Seeking to end the rapidly worsening shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, the White House has offered to expand the use of body-worn cameras for federal immigration enforcement agents and limit their activities at churches, schools, and hospitals.

But a month into the crisis, the Trump administration is still holding firm on one of the more contentious parts of the debate to reform the 9/11-era Cabinet agency, opposing any kind of ban on masks for law enforcement officers.

The concessions were detailed in a March 17 letter to Senate Republican leaders from top Trump administration officials about the status of negotiations between the White House and congressional Democrats.

As terrorism threats rise and airport security lines grow longer across the country, the letter underscores the intensifying pressure on the Trump administration and lawmakers to end the shutdown of the agency that has been widely scrutinized since the killings of two Minnesotans by Homeland Security officers earlier this year.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/03/17/dhs-homeland-security-shutdown-update/89186314007/

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Not really a concession because Ice Barbie already claimed that all ICE agents would be getting them before she was drop-kicked out.

REFERENCES

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143605219
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143607473
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143610296
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143611666
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143613086
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143613603

[underpants]

1. Sorry you hired all those Proud Boys and Jan. 6ers and you know how bad that is

But the masks have to come off. The rest of the reasonable demands still stand aholes.

Run away now and go do your appearances on Fox News crying and playing victim.

[2naSalit]

2. Not good enough.

[DBoon]

3. So the body cameras can record protestors

then use facial recognition to later harass them?

No thanks

[Bayard]

7. I bet they'd have fits if protesters start wearing masks

I'll stick to my dinosaur suit.

[surfered]

4. Also no masks and mandatory training in following the Constitution, specifically the 1st, 4th, and 5th Amendments

[JBTaurus83]

5. Not good enough

The GOP are on their backs with this and they know it.

[moniss]

6. Literally anything these fascists eventually

agree to they will do a double cross on later.

[erronis]

8. Or, "It looks like a technical glitch destroyed all the bodycam footage for all agents...."

And another glitch destroyed the backups. We're really sorry, sob.sob.sob.

[nuxvomica]

9. They actually want more video because they want terror

Terrorizing people with impunity is how they expect to control everyone.

[slumcamper]

10. NOPE

[rpannier]

11. Masks must go

And they must identify themselves

[Figarosmom]

12. No masks

trump knows there will be mass quitting. Or they will be more careful about legalities of what they are doing and trump doesn't want them to care. As for cameras, they will find ways for them to suddenly nit work when they do something like killing.

[SunSeeker]

13. The masks have got to go. Masks allow unaccountability.

No other law enforcement officers wear them.