Fourth Amendment

Markwayne Mullin Says Agents Don't Need a Warrant If They're Pursuing a Suspect. Here's What the Law Says.

“Officers don’t have the blanket authority to arrest anyone who runs from them,” says an attorney from the Institute for Justice.

Autumn Billings | 3.20.2026 5:13 PM

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(Sha Hanting/China News Service/VCG/Newscom)

During his Wednesday confirmation hearing, Sen. Mullin (R-Okla.), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary nominee, said he would reverse the agency's current policy allowing immigration officers to forcibly enter homes without a judicial warrant. 

"A judicial warrant will be used to go into houses, into places of business, unless [agents] are pursuing someone that enters in that place," said Mullin.

The issue over immigration agents obtaining judicial warrants has been contentious ever since a whistleblower revealed a secretive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) memo signed by Acting Director Todd Lyons. The memo instructed immigration agents to forcibly enter homes without a judicial warrant, and asserted that certain kinds of administrative warrants grant officers the broad authority to enter homes to make arrests. The........

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