A policy memo written by Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons shared by anonymous whistleblowers revealed that federal immigration agents were authorized to enter U.S. homes without judicial warrants.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have already been facing criticism following deployments to major U.S. cities, including Chicago, Ill., and Minneapolis, Minn. Earlier this month, the shocking fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent further increased tension over ICE tactics.
“This policy is directly contrary to longstanding legal interpretation of the Fourth Amendment and agency practice, which requires ICE agents to obtain a judicial warrant duly signed and executed by a judge in order to enter someone’s home,” said a Wednesday press release from U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Calif.) of the memo. “The whistleblower disclosure and public reporting reveal at least two examples of U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials wrongly entering the homes of American families in the past year.”
Blumenthal is “demanding accountability,” following the revelations from the memo, said the press release. That includes a demand for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to “provide an explanation for the policy,” as well as hearings in both the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees.
Henry Lake of WCCO News Talk in the Twin Cities said, “I think that that should shake a lot of people to their core,” regarding the memo. “And I’m not trying to create fear. This is legitimately where we’re at? That we now want to enter people’s homes without warrants signed by judges?”
“Every American should be terrified by this secret ICE policy authorizing its agents to kick down your door and storm into your home. It is a legally and morally abhorrent policy that exemplifies the kinds of dangerous, disgraceful abuses America is seeing in real time,” said Blumenthal. “In our democracy, with vanishingly rare exceptions, the government is barred from breaking into your home without a judge giving a green light. Government agents have no right to ransack your bedroom or terrorize your kids on a whim or personal desire.”
He also called out to Republican lawmakers “who claim to value personal rights against government overreach,” to get on board with holding hearings about the ICE policy.
Along with U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Blumenthal previously opened opened an inquiry into “frequent reports of unconstitutional detentions of U.S. citizens by agents of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP),” in October. Last month, he released a report “highlighting firsthand accounts of 22 Americans who were physically assaulted, pepper sprayed, denied medical treatment, and detained – sometimes for days – by federal immigration agents.”
Audacy has also reported on alleged unsanitary conditions at ICE detention centers as well as questions regarding ICE recruitment policies. Following Good’s death, Blumenthal sent Noem a letter regarding ICE training policies. Furthermore, he wrote the Director of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers “to determine if instructors have secretly been directed to verbally train newly hired ICE agents to enter people’s homes without a judicial warrant.”
A statement posted to X by the DHS said: “If an illegal alien has a final deportation order from an immigration judge and they refuse to leave, they are a fugitive from justice. In every case we serve an administrative warrant, there is probable cause and the illegal alien has had full due process and a final order of removal. 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. Administrative warrants have been used for decades and the Supreme Court and Congress have recognized the propriety of administrative warrants in cases of immigration enforcement,” in response to the Associated Press’ report on the memo. DHS held a press conference regarding the Minneapolis ICE operations Thursday.