ICE Says It Doesn't Need A Judicial Warrant
It’s been a long time since we took a night off. I honestly can’t remember the last time. But tonight I’m going to turn in early, after a long day. Before I do that, I wanted to flag one development with ICE for you.
I also want to leave you with some reason for optimism. You may have seen the news that ICE has now surged agents to Maine, predominantly to the cities of Portland and Lewiston, where there are large Somali immigrant communities. This is an echo of the focus on the Somali community in Minnesota.
Tonight, close to 1,000 people joined the mighty Maine ACLU for training on their legal rights and non-violent protest. It was an honor to get to participate in it. When we talk about community building and supporting democracy, this is what it’s all about: people committed to standing up for their rights and for their neighbors’ rights. There is training across the country that you can participate in to better educate yourself about your right to protest peacefully.
Now, the development: The Associated Press is reporting that it has seen a memo ICE is using for internal agent training that asserts “sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant.” The Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable search and seizure, has always been understood to require a warrant signed by a judge, not an administrative warrant signed by a DHS employee to enter a private residence or private areas of a business.
This new policy stance might explain some of the incidents that have been reported in Minnesota, where agents have made forcible entry into homes to remove people and put them into deportation proceedings without a judicial warrant. This sounds like what might have been at work when agents forcibly entered the home of a Hmong man in Minnesota who has been an American citizen for decades, and according to his statement, declined to produce a warrant and claimed he was subject to removal before forcing him out into the freezing cold in his underwear. It turned out that they got it wrong and were forced to release him a few hours later. The AP reported that they 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, which could also be a result of the new policy.
This is a deeply disturbing development and one we’ll be following closely. It is such a departure from established Fourth Amendment rules that it’s perilously close to open disregard for constitutional rights.
That’s all for tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow.
We’re in this together,
Joyce
I’m afraid I have to disagree with you Joyce. What you described doesn’t sound to me “perilously close to open disregard for constitutional rights” to me. I think it’s way over the line and a clear violation of the fourth amendment.
ICE AGENTS CLAIM RIGHT TO BREAK INTO HOMES WITHOUT JUDICIAL WARRANTS IN VIOLATION OF THE 4th AMENDMENT
As reported today by the Associated Press, ICE agents are now claiming that they have the right to use force to break into homes to arrest residents without a warrant signed by a judge.
The Fourth Amendment provides:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
It is settled law, as proclaimed by the U.S. Supreme Court, federal courts and state courts throughout the land that such warrants to enter homes by force must be signed by judges, and not mere civil servants or other administrative functionaries.
Whistleblower Aid, a non-profit legal organization, stated that it represents two anonymous U.S. government officials who have revealed “a secretive - and seemingly unconstitutional - policy directive.” This directive was in the form of an ICE memo that states that their officers can forcibly enter homes and arrest immigrants using just a signed administrative warrant known as an I-205. While it provides guidelines to first seek either permission to enter the home or attempt to draw the subject out of the home, such failure may be followed by forcibly entering the home to search for and arrest the subject.
Under this directive, who is authorized to issue these “administrative warrants” that are used to displace judges?: civil service functionaries or other administrative personnel within the Department of Homeland Security, the Secretary of which is - you guessed it- Kristi Noem.
One of the whistleblowers within ICE had been allowed to view the memo only in the presence of a supervisor and then had to give it back. That person was not allowed to take notes. A whistleblower was able to access the memo and lawfully disclose it to Congress, according to Whistleblower Aid. While the memo is addressed to all ICE personnel, 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. The memo was signed by the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, and dated May 12, 2025. According to the whistleblowers’ account, newly hired ICE officers are being told they can rely solely on these administrative warrants to enter homes by force to make arrests even though that conflicts with written Homeland Security training materials.
As each day passes, ICE’s tactics and ruthlessness look more and more like Himmler’s Gestapo.