In January 2026, two Americans were killed in the act of watching Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minneapolis. Renee Nicole Good was acting as a legal observer while her wife recorded the federal immigration agents they encountered. Alex Pretti was holding a phone in his hand, filming the agents who would soon take his life. Yet as dangerous as the mere act of observation became for these victims of ICE and Border Patrol’s violence, video is also what documented their murders and is now holding federal agents accountable.
That’s the paradox United States residents face as they decide how to resist—and record—ICE’s incursion into American cities.
“Unfortunately, there is no way to film ‘safely’ right now—I think everybody may be taking a risk because of how aggressive and brazen and outright illegal ICE’s conduct has been,” says Trevor Timm, cofounder and executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation. (Disclosure: WIRED’s global editorial director sits on Freedom of the Press Foundation’s board.) “Alex Pretti was killed in part because he was filming ICE, which is an absolute travesty. But we saw that shooting from half a dozen angles because there were other people there who were filming as well. And because they were filming, we saw the egregious lies that the Trump administration was spreading almost immediately.”
This tension has existed for more than two decades around the world as widespread access to smartphones has made video documentation and livestreaming a pivotal tool for activists and other concerned people looking to expose injustice and impact political discourse. In the US, people with cameras or smartphones out are being targeted by federal agents despite the First Amendment of the US Constitution protecting the activity of recording government operators in public spaces.
Trump administration officials have attempted to cloud this fact, though, as immigration enforcement operations have escalated around the country. In July, Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem called documenting federal agents “violence,” claiming: “It is doxing them. It is videotaping them where they’re at.”
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin similarly told WIRED in a statement that “videoing our officers in an effort to dox them and reveal their identities that is a federal crime and a felony.” DHS has maintained this position—despite the fact that, by DHS’s own questionable definition, ICE agents are “doxing” themselves.
That rhetoric represents a direct threat to anyone recording ICE agents, whether they’re legal observers, activists or reporters, says Jackie Zammuto, associate director at Witness, a nonprofit devoted to using video to fight human rights violations.
“Video documentation has the power to expose abuses, to help call for accountability, and to challenge official narratives,” Zammuto says. “At the same time, we’re absolutely seeing an increase of documenters being targeted—including journalists who are marked as journalists—even when they’re doing it legally, even when they’re respecting orders from the police. It is a massive risk, and I think that it’s important for people to weigh that risk and their own comfort in taking it.”
Yet Zammuto also notes there are practical tips to protect yourself in the act of recording authority figures like ICE agents. “There are ways to be safer, to consider your own security and also the security of those around you,” Zammuto says.
Here are some of those tips that WIRED has assembled from speaking to those who have used the radical act of pointing video cameras at authority figures for activism, in the media, and in court.
Before Filming
When filming ICE or Customs and Border Protection agents, or more generally recording events at a protest, using an alternative or burner phone can help protect your privacy and that of those around you. Still, leaving no digital trace at all is difficult to achieve: Immigration officials have built vast surveillance capabilities, including buying up online advertising data, deploying surveillance drones, tapping into license plate reader networks, and accessing systems that can monitor mobile phones across entire neighborhoods.
Beyond widespread surveillance, ICE or Border Patrol access to your phone could pose direct digital surveillance risks, either while you’re on the scene or at a later date if you’re detained and they take your device to extract data. If you are bringing your daily device to a protest, turn off biometrics, disable all Face ID and fingerprint unlocking systems, and instead use a password or a PIN to secure your device. Officials must have a warrant or court order to demand a PIN or passcode from you, whereas it is legally easier for them to compel you to unlock your device using a biometric.
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