(Washington) U.S. federal immigration agents claim absolute authority to forcibly enter residences without a court warrant, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) memo obtained by The Associated Press.
Published at
This marks a stark reversal from long-standing guidelines to respect constitutional limits on government searches.
The memo authorizes ICE agents to use force to enter a residence based on a simple administrative warrant to arrest a person subject to a final order of removal.
Rights advocates say the measure flies in the face of Fourth Amendment protections and upends years of guidance given to immigrants.
The shift comes as the Trump administration ramps up arrests of immigrants nationwide, deploying thousands of agents as part of a mass deportation campaign that is already reshaping enforcement tactics in cities such as Minneapolis.
For years, immigrant advocates, legal aid groups and local governments have urged people not to open their doors to immigration officials unless they present them with a warrant signed by a judge.
This recommendation is based on Supreme Court decisions that generally prohibit law enforcement from entering a home without judicial authorization. The ICE directive goes directly against this recommendation, at a time when arrests are accelerating.
According to a whistleblower complaint, the memo was not widely distributed within the agency, but its contents were used to train new ICE agents who are being deployed to cities to implement President Trump’s immigration crackdown policies.
According to the whistleblower’s disclosures, ICE recruits and agents who are still in training are directed to follow the memo’s recommendations rather than written training materials that actually contradict the memo.
It is unclear to what extent this directive has been applied in immigration control operations. The Associated Press saw ICE agents break down the front door of a Liberian’s Minneapolis home on Jan. 11, armed only with an administrative warrant, dressed in heavy tactical gear and armed with rifles.
The change is sure to be legally challenged and sharply criticized by immigrant rights groups and local and regional governments.
The Associated Press obtained the memo and whistleblower complaint from a congressional official, who provided it on condition of anonymity. The AP verified the authenticity of the information in the complaint.
The memo, signed by Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and dated May 12, 2025, states that “although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has never relied solely on administrative warrants to arrest aliens subject to final orders for removal at their place of residence, the DHS Office of Legal Counsel has recently determined that the U.S. Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and immigration regulations do not prohibit reliance on administrative mandates for this purpose.”
The memo does not specify how this decision was reached or what its legal repercussions might be.
Asked by the AP about the memo, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in an email that all individuals subject to a department administrative warrant have already received “full due process and a final determination of removal.”
She added that the officers who issued these warrants also found valid grounds for the arrest of these people. She said the Supreme Court and Congress have “recognized the relevance of administrative warrants in immigration enforcement cases,” without elaborating.
Mme McLaughlin did not respond to questions about whether ICE agents had entered a person’s home since the memo was issued based solely on an administrative warrant and, if so, how often.
Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit legal organization that helps workers report wrongdoing, said in the complaint obtained by The Associated Press that it represented two unnamed U.S. officials “disclosing a secret and apparently unconstitutional policy directive.”
A wave of high-profile arrests, many of which took place in private homes and businesses and were caught on camera, has highlighted immigrant arrest tactics, including officers’ use of appropriate warrants.
Most immigrant arrests are made based on administrative warrants, internal documents issued by immigration authorities that authorize the arrest of a specific person but do not allow officers to forcibly enter private homes or other nonpublic spaces without consent. Only warrants signed by judges confer this authority.
Citizens protected by the Constitution
All law enforcement operations, including those conducted by ICE, are governed by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which protects all persons in the country from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Individuals may legally refuse federal immigration agents entry onto private property if those agents only have an administrative warrant, with some exceptions.
The memo says ICE agents can forcibly enter homes and arrest immigrants using only a signed administrative warrant, known as an I-205, if they have a final order of deportation from an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals, or a district judge or justice of the peace.
The memo states that officers must first knock on the door and indicate who they are and why they are at that address. They can only enter the home between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Those inside must be given a “reasonable opportunity to act in accordance with the law.” But if that doesn’t work, the note mentions that they can use force to gain entry.
“If the alien refuses entry, ICE agents and officers must use only necessary and reasonable force to enter the alien’s residence, after properly signaling their authority and intent to enter,” the memo reads.
This is addressed to all ICE staff. The memo, however, was only shown to “certain DHS officials” who then passed it on to certain employees who were asked to read it and return it, Whistleblower Aid wrote in its disclosure.
One of the two whistleblowers was only allowed to view the note in the presence of a superior, and then had to return it. This person was not authorized to take notes. A whistleblower was able to access the document and legally disclose it to Congress, Whistleblower Aid reported, calling the new policy a “blatant violation of the law.”
