ICE Memo Asserts Federal Agents Can Bust Into People’s Homes To Make Arrests Without Judge’s Warrant

At this point, it’s clear that neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) nor the Trump administration that enables the agency cares at all about how increasingly unpopular they’re becoming with most Americans — they just keep pushing the line deeper and deeper into all-out authoritarianism.

The constant protests, the civil unrest, the viral video footage of agents dragging elderly people out of their homes, terrorizing children, tear gassing and pepper-spraying families, racially profiling, attacking people without physical provocation and, lest we forget, killing people — none of that even appears to give the feds pause, and make them think about their approach to immigration enforcement. They just keep doubling and tripling down on the chaos and Gestapo-like conduct.

Now, they’ve decided they can force their way into people’s homes without warrants, which they were already doing, but still.

According to an ICE memo obtained by the Associated Press, federal immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant.

From AP:

The memo authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a more narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone with a final order of removal, a move that advocates say collides with Fourth Amendment protections and upends years of advice given to immigrant communities.

The shift comes as the Trump administration dramatically expands immigration arrests nationwide, deploying thousands of officers under 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 agents unless they are shown a warrant signed by a judge. That guidance is rooted in Supreme Court rulings that generally prohibit law enforcement from entering a home without judicial approval. The ICE directive directly undercuts that advice at a time when arrests are accelerating under the administration’s immigration crackdown.

In other words, when people resist, the federal government takes away what little power they have. This is the exact kind of “tyrannical government” Republicans used to claim they would take up arms against, per their Second Amendment rights.

According to what AP described as a “whistleblower complaint,” the civil rights-defying memo hasn’t been widely shared throughout the agency, but it is being used to train new ICE personnel — which means it doesn’t really matter that it hasn’t gone agency-wide, because, again, seasoned ICE agents are already out here treating civil rights and constitutional protections like they’re only recommended options.

More from AP:

It is unclear how broadly the directive has been applied in immigration enforcement operations. The Associated Press witnessed ICE officers ramming through the front door of the home of a Liberian man, Garrison Gibson, with a deportation order from 2023 in Minneapolis on Jan. 11, wearing heavy tactical gear and with their rifles drawn.

Documents reviewed by The AP revealed that the agents only had an administrative warrant — meaning there was no judge who authorized the raid on private property.

Yeah — they’re already doing it. The memo is further normalizing it.

All we can do is keep challenging the Trump administration in the courts and serving as the resistance against its federal goons in the streets. It’s a sad state of affairs, but this is where we are.

SEE ALSO:

ICE Agents Invade Minneapolis Hospital With No Warrant

Federal Judge Places Restrictions On ICE Arrests In Chicago