ICE has created a secret policy that permits officers to enter the homes of illegal immigrant targets by force without a judicial warrant, according to a whistleblower revealed by a senior senator Wednesday.
The policy allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to rely on so-called administrative warrants, which ICE creates without going through a neutral judicial officer. The policy cites an executive order from President Trump as partial authority for the new policy.
“ICE immigration officers should consider all available enforcement mechanisms, including the use of the Form I-205 to arrest an alien in their place of residence, to achieve the requirements of E.O. 14159,” the policy said, according to a whistleblower letter released by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat.
That would be a massive reversal of traditional practice and would challenge the legal conclusions of most experts who say Form I-205, a warrant of removal, does not meet the Fourth Amendment standards for law enforcement to enter a home without permission.
The whistleblower complaint, however, said that lawyers at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, have concluded that the Constitution and federal laws “do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants for this purpose.”
Mr. Blumenthal called the revelation “shocking” and the attorneys’ conclusions “faulty.”
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“Every American should be terrified by this secret ICE policy authorizing its agents to kick down your door and storm into your home,” he said. “It is a legally and morally abhorrent policy that exemplifies the kinds of dangerous, disgraceful abuses America is seeing in real time.”
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended the policy.
“Every illegal alien who DHS serves administrative warrants/I-205s have had full due process and a final order of removal from an immigration judge,” she said. “The officers issuing these administrative warrants also have found probable cause. For decades, the Supreme Court and Congress have recognized the propriety of administrative warrants in cases of immigration enforcement.”
Mr. Blumenthal said the policy is a departure from the past, and indeed the memo, as detailed in the whistleblower revelations, acknowledged that the Homeland Security Department “has not historically relied on administrative warrants alone to arrest aliens subject to final orders of removal in their place of residence.”
Mr. Blumenthal questioned why, if the policy was so easily defended, it had been kept secret.
The May 12 memo detailing the change was addressed to “all ICE personnel,” but the whistleblowers said in their memo to the senator that it was provided only to “select” officials who then verbally briefed others. The memo is shown only to “some employees.”
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The memo was prepared by Whistleblower Aid, which kept the names of its two sources secret even from Congress. It said its sources were among those shown the secret memo.
The whistleblowers said recruits are being trained under the new policy, even though it contradicts the Homeland Security Department’s written training materials.
According to the disclosure, the memo requires officers to knock and announce their presence, stating their identity and purpose. It also makes clear that the I-205 is not a search warrant and can be used only for an arrest and an immediate look around to determine officer safety.
Officers are told not to enter homes from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
If the target then refuses entry, then ICE officers can use a “reasonable amount of force” to enter.
The new policy applies only to the residence of a migrant target and cannot be used to justify entry into a third-party home.
The memo says it doesn’t apply in the federal judicial Central District of California, citing a 2024 court case.
Whistleblower Aid said one of its sources believes the policy is already being used in Texas.
The memo was issued by acting ICE Director Todd Lyons.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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