Immigration officers assert power to enter homes without judge's warrant, memo says

WASHINGTON — Federal immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people's homes without a judge's warrant, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press, marking a sharp reversal of longstanding guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches.

The memo authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a more narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone with a final order of removal, a move that advocates say collides with Fourth Amendment protections.

For years, immigrant advocates, legal aid groups and local governments have urged people not to open their doors to immigration agents unless they are shown a warrant signed by a judge. That guidance is rooted in Supreme Court rulings that generally prohibit law enforcement from entering a home without judicial approval. The ICE directive directly undercuts that advice.

The memo has not been widely shared within the agency, according to a whistleblower complaint, but its contents have been used to train new ICE officers, who are being told to follow the memo's guidance instead of written training materials that contradict the memo.

It is unclear how broadly the directive has been applied. The AP witnessed ICE officers ramming through the front door of the home of a Liberian man in Minneapolis on Jan. 11 with only an administrative warrant, wearing heavy tactical gear and with their rifles drawn.

The AP obtained the memo and whistleblower complaint from an official in Congress, who shared it on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive documents. The AP verified the authenticity of the accounts in the complaint.

The memo, signed by the ICE acting director Todd Lyons and dated May 12, 2025, says: "Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not historically relied on administrative warrants alone to arrest aliens subject to final orders of removal in their place of residence, the DHS Office of the General Counsel has recently determined that the U.S. Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the immigration regulations do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants for this purpose."

When asked about the memo, Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said everyone the department serves with an administrative warrant has already had "full due process and a final order of removal."

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Whistleblower Aid, a non-profit legal organization that assists workers exposing wrongdoings, said in the complaint obtained by AP that it represents two anonymous U.S. government officials "disclosing a secretive - and seemingly unconstitutional - policy directive."

Most immigration arrests are carried out under administrative warrants, internal documents issued by immigration authorities that authorize the arrest of an individual but do not permit officers to forcibly enter private homes or other non-public spaces without consent. Only warrants signed by judges carry that authority.

All law enforcement operations — including those conducted by ICE and Customs and Border Protection — are governed by the Fourth Amendment, which protects all people in the country from unreasonable searches and seizures.

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People can legally refuse federal immigration agents entry into private property if the agents only have an administrative warrant.

Memo shown to 'select' officials

The memo says ICE officers can forcibly enter homes and arrest immigrants using just a signed administrative warrant known as an I-205 if they have a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals or a district judge or magistrate judge.

The memo says officers must first knock on the door and share who they are and why they're at the residence. They're limited in the hours they can go into the home — after 6 a.m. and before 10 p.m. The people inside must be given a "reasonable chance to act lawfully." But if that doesn't work, the memo says, they can use force to go in.

The memo is addressed to all ICE personnel. But it has been shown only to "select DHS officials" who then shared it with some employees who were told to read it and return it, Whistleblower Aid wrote in the disclosure.

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During an AP visit to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Georgia, ICE officials said new deportation officers were being trained to follow the Fourth Amendment.

But according to the whistleblowers' account, new ICE officers are being told they can rely solely on administrative warrants to enter homes to make arrests even though that conflicts with written Homeland Security training materials.

ICE officers often wait hours for the person they're hoping to arrest to come outside so they can make the arrest on the sidewalk or at the person's work — public places where they are allowed to operate without the risk of infringing on the person's Fourth Amendment rights.

Whistleblower Aid called the new policy a "complete break from the law" and said it undercuts the "Fourth Amendment and the rights it protects."

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