Fourth Amendment

Autumn Billings | 1.26.2026 12:36 PM

Whistleblowers have shared an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) memo with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D–Conn.). The document claims that ICE officers may enter homes without consent while conducting certain immigration arrests without a judicial warrant. This sweeping power would be an alarming violation of Americans' well-founded constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.  

Signed by acting ICE Director Todd Lyons in May of last year, the memo states that agents may rely on a certain administrative warrant issued alongside a final order of removal to use "a necessary and reasonable" amount of force to the named individual's residence if officers are denied entry.

The memo concedes that "historically," these administrative warrants alone have not been used to arrest immigrants in their homes without first obtaining consent to enter. But the Office of General Counsel at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has apparently decided that such action is permissible when a Form I-205, a kind of administrative warrant of removal/deportation, is "supported by a final order of removal........

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