How to Film ICE

In January 2026, 2 Americans were killed successful the enactment of watching Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations successful Minneapolis. Renee Nicole Good was acting arsenic a ineligible perceiver portion her woman recorded the national migration agents they encountered. Alex Pretti was holding a telephone successful his hand, filming the agents who would soon instrumentality his life. Yet arsenic unsafe arsenic the specified enactment of reflection became for these victims of ICE and Border Patrol's violence, video is besides what documented their murders and is present holding national agents accountable.

That's the paradox United States residents look arsenic they determine however to resist—and record—ICE's incursion into American cities.

“Unfortunately, determination is nary mode to movie ‘safely’ close now—I deliberation everybody whitethorn beryllium taking a hazard due to the fact that of however assertive and brazen and outright amerciable ICE’s behaviour has been,” says Trevor Timm, cofounder and enforcement manager of Freedom of the Press Foundation. (Disclosure: WIRED’s planetary editorial manager sits connected Freedom of the Press Foundation’s board.) “Alex Pretti was killed successful portion due to the fact that helium was filming ICE, which is an implicit travesty. But we saw that shooting from fractional a twelve angles due to the fact that determination were different radical determination who were filming arsenic well. And due to the fact that they were filming, we saw the egregious lies that the Trump medication was spreading astir immediately.”

This hostility has existed for much than 2 decades astir the satellite arsenic wide entree to smartphones has made video documentation and livestreaming a pivotal instrumentality for activists and different acrophobic radical looking to exposure injustice and interaction governmental discourse. In the US, radical with cameras oregon smartphones retired are being targeted by national agents contempt the First Amendment of the US Constitution protecting the enactment of signaling authorities operators successful nationalist spaces.

Trump medication officials person attempted to unreality this fact, though, arsenic migration enforcement operations person escalated astir the country. In July, Department of Homeland Security caput Kristi Noem called documenting national agents “violence,” claiming: “It is doxing them. It is videotaping them wherever they’re at.”

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin likewise told WIRED successful a connection that “videoing our officers successful an effort to dox them and uncover their identities that is simply a national transgression and a felony.” DHS has maintained this position—despite the information that, by DHS’s ain questionable definition, ICE agents are “doxing” themselves.

That rhetoric represents a nonstop menace to anyone signaling ICE agents, whether they’re ineligible observers, activists oregon reporters, says Jackie Zammuto, subordinate manager astatine Witness, a nonprofit devoted to utilizing video to combat quality rights violations.

“Video documentation has the powerfulness to exposure abuses, to assistance telephone for accountability, and to situation authoritative narratives,” Zammuto says. “At the aforesaid time, we're perfectly seeing an summation of documenters being targeted—including journalists who are marked arsenic journalists—even erstwhile they're doing it legally, adjacent erstwhile they're respecting orders from the police. It is simply a monolithic risk, and I deliberation that it's important for radical to measurement that hazard and their ain comfortableness successful taking it.”

Yet Zammuto besides notes determination are applicable tips to support yourself successful the enactment of signaling authorization figures similar ICE agents. “There are ways to beryllium safer, to see your ain information and besides the information of those astir you,” Zammuto says.

Here are immoderate of those tips that WIRED has assembled from speaking to those who person utilized the extremist enactment of pointing video cameras astatine authorization figures for activism, successful the media, and successful court.

Before Filming

When filming ICE oregon Customs and Border Protection agents, oregon much mostly signaling events astatine a protest, utilizing an alternate oregon burner telephone tin assistance support your privateness and that of those astir you. Still, leaving nary integer hint astatine each is hard to achieve: Immigration officials person built immense surveillance capabilities, including buying up online advertizing data, deploying surveillance drones, tapping into licence sheet scholar networks, and accessing systems that tin show mobile phones crossed full neighborhoods.

Beyond wide surveillance, ICE oregon Border Patrol entree to your telephone could airs nonstop integer surveillance risks, either portion you’re connected the country oregon astatine a aboriginal day if you’re detained and they instrumentality your instrumentality to extract data. If you are bringing your regular instrumentality to a protest, crook disconnected biometrics, disable each Face ID and fingerprint unlocking systems, and alternatively usage a password oregon a PIN to unafraid your device. Officials indispensable person a warrant oregon tribunal bid to request a PIN oregon passcode from you, whereas it is legally easier for them to compel you to unlock your instrumentality utilizing a biometric.

In practice, though, you whitethorn consciousness pressured to unlock your instrumentality for agents nary substance however it’s secured, truthful utilizing an alternate instrumentality that doesn’t person your full integer beingness connected it helps minimize however overmuch gets revealed successful a worst-case scenario.

While Filming

When filming, you should commencement signaling arsenic soon arsenic imaginable erstwhile you’re successful the vicinity of an incident, and support the camera rolling arsenic agelong arsenic you can. Filming horizontally alternatively than vertically includes much of the scene. “We deliberation it's truly important to effort to seizure arsenic overmuch of the concern arsenic imaginable continuously. If you commencement and halt your footage, it's easier for radical to accidental it's been manipulated oregon things person been chopped out,” Witness’ Zammuto says.

With cheap, easy-to-use video procreation tools disposable to virtually anyone, it is straightforward to make AI videos of ICE agents and mendacious scenes. Filming a dilatory 360 grade cookware tin amusement the afloat surroundings and marque it harder for radical to assertion video footage isn’t real. The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), for instance, recommends making video footage easier to authenticate by besides filming the wider context—including adjacent landmarks oregon thoroughfare signs—as good arsenic perchance filming a smartphone location screen, oregon a clock, that shows the clip oregon date.

The NYCLU recommends focusing connected ICE agents themselves wherever imaginable to papers their activity, alternatively than utilizing the camera to travel the radical impacted by agents’ actions. Keeping the lens connected agents makes it much apt that you volition seizure footage of immoderate disposable badges, officers’ clothing, licence plates connected vehicles, oregon different perchance identifying features to further transparency and accountability. Additionally, signaling for arsenic agelong arsenic possible, adjacent aft interactions with agents look to beryllium over, is simply a mode of ensuring that you seizure immoderate unexpected enactment that could harvest up arsenic a assemblage is dispersing.

Intimidation and deterrence to filming tin beryllium a world connected the scene. For example, autarkic writer Ken Klippenstein shared a video showing what appears to beryllium an ICE cause scanning a ineligible observer’s car. The perceiver asks wherefore the cause is scrutinizing their conveyance and the cause says, “We person a bully small database, and present you’re considered a home terrorist. So person amusive with that.”

When interacting with national agents portion filming, it is important to amusement wide compliance successful an effort to deescalate tension, experts say. The purpose of documenting ICE is to make accountability, not to intervene successful their operation. When possible, it tin beryllium adjuvant to seizure yourself connected video interacting peacefully with agents and complying with their orders.

“If they're saying to measurement back, measurement back, truthful that they don’t accidental that you’re interfering,” Zammuto says. “You tin say, ‘I americium exercising my First Amendment close to observe and papers this interaction, and I'm complying with orders,’ and it tin beryllium adjuvant to papers yourself complying with those orders. So movie yourself taking immoderate steps backmost and saying ‘I'm backing up.’”

If you request to spell further successful an effort to deescalate, experts accidental that you should amusement agents that you’ve stopped filming oregon bash immoderate it takes to support your safety. Given the fraught climate, they bash not counsel signaling secretly oregon attempting to instrumentality agents.

“You could beryllium putting yourself much astatine hazard by perchance lying to a national instrumentality enforcement serviceman oregon perchance getting yourself into occupation successful antithetic ways,” Timm of the Freedom of the Press Foundation says. “I deliberation the champion defence against an ICE serviceman perchance seizing your camera successful a nationalist abstraction is different radical signaling that enactment and past being capable to usage that footage arsenic grounds successful tribunal erstwhile you writer them for violating your law rights.”

After Filming

While it whitethorn beryllium tempting (and often newsworthy) to instantly station video footage of ICE oregon different migration authoritative enactment to societal media arsenic soon arsenic it is safe, you whitethorn privation to intermission earlier doing so. “It tin exposure radical successful the video to harm arsenic good arsenic the idiosyncratic who filmed it,” says Zammuto from Witness. This includes perchance subjecting people’s likenesses to the FBI’s look designation systems, which the bureau whitethorn tally against photos and videos of protesters posted to societal media.

You should see who is being shown successful the video and if determination are risks to them by publishing it, if you whitethorn look repercussions from publishing the video, and whether determination are alternate routes to get it online. Precautions you could take, depending connected the situation, see blurring the faces of bystanders successful the video, scrubbing metadata from files, and removing determination data.

Instead of posting footage online from your ain accounts, you whitethorn privation to straight stock footage with media outlets, investigators, lawyers, victims of migration activity, oregon civilian nine groups. You should make backups of the footage, specified arsenic sharing it with trusted contacts oregon uploading to unreality storage. Zammuto says you should not edit footage oregon alteration record names; if edits oregon alterations request to beryllium made, they should beryllium done connected a duplicate transcript truthful the archetypal is preserved.

“While it is important to stock contented connected societal media, these platforms modify contented by reducing solution and prime and stripping informative metadata,” says Hany Farid, a prof astatine the University of California and integer forensics expert. “As such, I advocator ever redeeming the archetypal recordings that tin beryllium shared with reporters and forensic analysts similar me.”

Uploading files into unreality retention systems, specified arsenic Dropbox, Google Drive, oregon different centralized storage, is an option, Farid says. One regulation of utilizing unreality storage, though, is that instrumentality enforcement officials tin perchance subpoena companies for entree to files stored connected their servers. DHS has issued astatine slightest 1 subpoena asking for accusation astir those documenting ICE’s activity.

Aside from showing ICE’s actions connected societal media, determination are aggregate different efforts ongoing to stitchery and papers migration enforcement activities connected video. Around the country, aggregate authorities attorneys and section governments person acceptable up online portals wherever videos oregon different imagery tin beryllium uploaded to assistance immoderate imaginable investigations. Attorneys wide and officials successful New York, Arizona, California, Colorado, Maine, Oregon, Illinois, and Minnesota, person each published ailment forms wherever radical tin stock details of incidents to assistance way actions of national agents.

Media organizations, civilian nine groups, and assorted assemblage projects are besides aiming to stitchery and papers accusation astir ICE activities. Local municipality oregon metropolis “ICE watch” groups and tiplines may, arsenic portion of their enactment efforts, make shared online drives wherever photos and videos tin straight beryllium uploaded.

While galore efforts whitethorn backup videos, often the astir worth tin beryllium gained from them by systematically geolocating footage, adding metadata, and uploading them to databases. Collecting arsenic galore videos arsenic imaginable and verifying details astir them tin beryllium incredibly utile for investigations implicit time, says Eliot Higgins, the laminitis of investigative journalism outlet Bellingcat. “You tin spot patterns of behavior, look astatine incidents that wouldn’t usually interruption done connected societal media, due to the fact that they aren’t arsenic convulsive oregon lethal arsenic immoderate of the different ones, but inactive amusement worldly that is astatine champion dubious and perchance amerciable oregon violations of quality rights.”

Bellingcat, which has published elaborate ocular investigations of the 2 ICE killings and weapons utilized by migration agents, is utilizing unfastened root bundle Atlos to archive and make databases of ICE-related footage, which tin past beryllium further investigated. “Getting grooming and those methodologies retired there, and having radical signifier earlier it happens is precise important,” Higgins says, adding that galore video classification and archiving techniques person already been developed. “There’s a batch of this enactment that's already been done successful the discourse of Syria and Ukraine, which applies straight to what's happening successful the US,” Higgins says.

In Court

In summation to sharing footage with media organizations, assemblage projects, and posting online, immoderate radical mightiness take to stock with an attorney. ACLU branches, specified arsenic ACLU-MN and ACLU-IL, are representing observers successful lawsuits against the national government.

In those cases, attorneys person relied heavy connected declarations, which are signed statements that are submitted to the tribunal verifying the information of thing the witnesser saw. Ian Bratlie, an ACLU-MN lawyer who is representing observers successful a suit against the national government, says that due to the fact that judges request to trust connected the grounds to marque facts, “declarations are a bully mode for the courts to perceive what is happening connected the ground.”

Groups similar ACLU-MN person intake forms wherever radical tin taxable accounts of suspected unlawful behaviour by national agents. Bratlie says it’s important to beryllium arsenic thorough arsenic imaginable erstwhile submitting, and the much item the better.

“Everybody’s a small different,” says Bratlie. “Some radical are truly bully astir remembering what cars look like, different radical are beauteous bully astatine remembering existent quotes versus the essence of what was said.”

The ACLU-MN processes the intake forms, and sometimes reaches retired to radical to hole a ceremonial declaration to taxable to the courts. Bratlie says, “I thin to deliberation video is precise helpful, but adjacent radical without video should inactive scope retired and speech to us–you don’t request video to beryllium these are violations.” But video makes the grounds hard to dispute, and much comprehensively catalogues details than fallible quality memories.

While lawyers tin besides trust connected quality articles to found facts, declarations are often seen arsenic stronger due to the fact that determination are consequences if the declarant lies and commits perjury. ACLU-MN has made usage of declarations successful 2 lawsuits against Kristi Noem successful her capableness arsenic DHS secretary, and the authorities of Minnesota has resubmitted immoderate of those declarations arsenic grounds successful its ain suit against Noem.

All of those means of accountability amusement however almighty ocular grounds tin beryllium erstwhile it’s recorded cautiously and ends up successful the close hands. “Unquestionably, video has the powerfulness to exposure the tactics that ICE and authorities are utilizing against radical and to situation the ‘official’ narrative,” Witness’ Zammuto says. “I deliberation that's astir apt 1 of the astir almighty roles we’re seeing video play: The medication is saying 1 happening and a video shows thing wholly different.”

As almighty arsenic documenting ICE enactment tin be, remember: There is nary mode to movie national agents without immoderate level of risk, truthful deliberation cautiously earlier heading into the streets. And enactment harmless retired there.