WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Federal immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people鈥檚 homes without , according to an internal obtained by The Associated Press, marking a sharp reversal of longstanding guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches.
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 that is already 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鈥檚 immigration crackdown.
The memo itself has not been widely shared within the agency, according to a whistleblower complaint, but its contents have been new ICE officers who are being deployed into cities and towns to implement the president鈥檚 immigration crackdown. New ICE hires and those still in training are being told to follow the memo鈥檚 guidance instead of written training materials that actually contradict the memo, according to the whistleblower disclosure.
It is unclear how broadly the directive has been applied in immigration enforcement operations. The Associated Press witnessed ICE officers 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 鈥� meaning there was no judge who authorized the raid on private property.
The change is almost certain to meet legal challenges and stiff criticism from advocacy groups and immigrant-friendly state and local governments that have spent years successfully urging people not to open their doors unless ICE shows them a warrant signed by a judge.
The Associated Press obtained the memo and whistleblower complaint from an official in Congress, who shared it on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive documents. The AP verified the authenticity of the accounts in the complaint.
The memo, signed by the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, and dated May 12, 2025, says: 鈥淎lthough the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not historically relied on administrative warrants alone to arrest aliens subject to final orders of removal in their place of residence, the DHS Office of the General Counsel has recently determined that the U.S. Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the immigration regulations do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants for this purpose.鈥�
The memo does not detail how that determination was made nor what its legal repercussions might be.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in an e-mailed statement to the AP that everyone the department serves with an administrative warrant has already had 鈥渇ull due process and a final order of removal.鈥�
She said the officers issuing those warrants have also found probable cause for the person鈥檚 arrest. She said the Supreme Court and Congress have 鈥渞ecognized the propriety of administrative warrants in cases of immigration enforcement,鈥� without elaborating. McLaughlin did not respond to questions about whether ICE officers entered a person鈥檚 home since the memo was issued, relying solely on an administrative warrant and if so, how often.
Recent arrests shine a light on tactics
Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit legal organization that assists workers exposing wrongdoings, said in the whistleblower complaint obtained by The Associated Press that it represents two anonymous U.S. government officials 鈥渄isclosing a secretive 鈥� and seemingly unconstitutional 鈥� policy directive.鈥�
A wave of recent high-profile arrests, many and businesses and captured on video, has placed a spotlight on immigration arrest tactics, including officers鈥� use of proper warrants.
Most immigration arrests are carried out under administrative warrants, internal documents issued by immigration authorities that authorize the arrest of a specific individual but do not permit officers to forcibly enter private homes or other non-public spaces without consent. Only warrants signed by judges carry that authority.
All law enforcement operations 鈥� including those conducted by ICE and Customs and Border Protection 鈥� are governed by the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which protects all people in the country from unreasonable searches and seizures.
People can legally refuse federal immigration agents entry into private property if the agents only have an administrative warrant, with some limited exceptions.
Memo shown to 鈥榮elect鈥� officials
The memo says ICE officers can forcibly enter homes and arrest immigrants using just a signed administrative warrant known as an I-205 if they have a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals or a district judge or magistrate judge.
The memo says officers must first knock on the door and share who they are and why they鈥檙e at the residence. They鈥檙e limited in the hours they can go into the home 鈥� after 6 a.m. and before 10 p.m. The people inside must be given a 鈥渞easonable chance to act lawfully.鈥� But if that doesn鈥檛 work, the memo says, they can use force to go in.
鈥淪hould the alien refuse admittance, ICE officers and agents should use only a necessary and reasonable amount of force to enter the alien鈥檚 residence, following proper notification of the officer or agent鈥檚 authority and intent to enter,鈥� the memo reads.
The memo is addressed to all ICE personnel. But it has been shown only to 鈥渟elect DHS officials鈥� who then shared it with some employees who were told to read it and return it, Whistleblower Aid wrote in the disclosure.
One of the two whistleblowers was allowed to view the memo only in the presence of a supervisor and then had to give it back. That person was not allowed to take notes. A whistleblower was able to access the document and lawfully disclose it to Congress, Whistleblower Aid said.
Although the memo was issued in May, David Kligerman, senior vice president and special counsel at Whistleblower Aid, said it took time for its clients to find a 鈥渟afe and legal path to disclose it to lawmakers and the American people.鈥�
Memo says ICE officers are told to rely solely on administrative warrants
ICE has been rapidly hiring thousands of new deportation officers to carry out the president鈥檚 mass deportation agenda. They鈥檙e trained at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Georgia.
During by The Associated Press in August, ICE officials said repeatedly that new officers were being trained to follow the Fourth Amendment.
But according to the whistleblowers鈥� account, newly hired ICE officers are being told they can rely solely on administrative warrants to enter homes to make arrests, even though that conflicts with written Homeland Security training materials.
Lindsay Nash, a law professor at Yeshiva University鈥檚 Cardozo School of Law in New York, said the memo 鈥渇lies in the face鈥� of what the Fourth Amendment protects against and what ICE itself has historically said are its authorities.
She said there’s an 鈥渆normous potential for overreach, for mistakes and we’ve seen that those can happen with very, very serious consequences.鈥�
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