A May 2025 internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement document shows that the agency told officers and agents they can forcibly enter homes of people subject to deportation without a warrant signed by a judge.<\/p>\n
The memo, dated May 12 and which reads that it is from ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, was shared with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., by two whistleblowers.<\/p>\n
It says that ICE agents are allowed to forcibly enter the home of a person using an administrative warrant if a judge has issued a \u201cfinal order of removal.\u201d Administrative warrants permit officers and agents to make arrests and are different from judicial warrants, which a judge or magistrate signs allowing entry into a home. <\/p>\n
Lyons notes in the document that detaining people \u201cin their residences\u201d based solely on administrative warrants is a change from past procedures.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough 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 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,\u201d the memo reads.<\/p>\n
The memo says that agents may \u201carrest and detain aliens\u201d in their place of residence who are subject to a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals, or a U.S. district or magistrate judge.<\/p>\n
The memo says under general guidelines that officers and agents using a method called Form I-205 must \u201cknock and announce\u201d and that \u201cin announcing, officers and agents must state their identity and purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Associated Press first reported<\/a> on the document Wednesday.<\/p>\n Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that immigrants in the country illegally who are served administrative warrants or I-205\u2019s, which are removal or deportation warrants, \u201chave had full due process and a final order of removal from an immigration judge.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe officers issuing these administrative warrants also have found probable cause,\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cFor decades, the Supreme Court and Congress have recognized the propriety of administrative warrants in cases of immigration enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n The group Whistleblower Aid, which is representing the whistleblowers who shared the memo with Congress, said, \u201cThis \u2018policy\u2019 flies in the face of longstanding federal law enforcement training material and policies, all rooted in constitutional assessments.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn other words: the Form I-205 does not authorize ICE agents to enter a home,\u201d the group said in a statement. \u201cTraining new recruits, many of whom have zero prior law enforcement training or experience, to seemingly disregard the Fourth Amendment, should be of grave concern to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Blumenthal said in a statement that the memo was \u201callegedly not widely distributed\u201d despite being labeled \u201call-hands.\u201d A copy of the memo shared with Congress is addressed to \u201cAll ICE Personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInstead, the disclosure claims that the memo was rolled out in a secretive manner in which some agents were verbally briefed while others were allowed to view it but not keep a copy,\u201d Blumenthal said. \u201cIt was reportedly clear that anyone who openly spoke out against this new directive would be fired.\u201d<\/p>\n The memo is dated less than five months into the second term of President Donald Trump, who campaigned on mass deportations.<\/p>\n Immigration crackdowns by the Trump administration against several Democrat-run cities have sparked protests and unrest, most recently in Minneapolis after an ICE agent fatally shot a U.S. citizen, Renee Good, on Jan. 7.<\/p>\n Blumenthal in a statement said that the newly revealed ICE policy should terrify Americans.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a legally and morally abhorrent policy that exemplifies the kinds of dangerous, disgraceful abuses America is seeing in real time,\u201d Blumenthal said. \u201cIn our democracy, with vanishingly rare exceptions, the government is barred from breaking into your home without a judge giving a green light.\u201d<\/p>\n The ICE memo says that Form I-205 is not a search warrant and \u201cshould only be used to enter the residence of the subject alien to conduct an immigration arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the Trump administration, roughly 220,000 people have been arrested by ICE officers in the nine months Jan. 20 to Oct. 15, according to data shared by a project in December<\/a>.<\/p>\n Around 75,000 of those have been people with no criminal records, according to the data.<\/p>\n