An internal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) memo, to which the media has had access, authorizes ICE agents to break down doors and enter private homes without a warrant in order to make arrests of undocumented individuals.
The document has also been submitted to Congress by a group called Whistleblower Aid, which represents two anonymous U.S. officials.
ICE allows warrantless searches
ICE authorizes its agents to enter homes by force and without a warrant https://t.co/YTblXAMXs1 pic.twitter.com/Q7YCGYkxoV
– FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) January 22, 2026
Normally agents such as ICE agents require a warrant signed by a judge to enter the home of a person suspected of being in the country illegally, but guidelines shared by the group and reportedly issued by the agency last May suggest that a warrant from an official at the Department of Homeland Security, which ICE reports to, is sufficient to break down a door.
The memo was signed May 12 by ICE acting director Todd Lyons before being shared with the rest of the agency, according to Whistleblower Aid.
“While the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has not historically relied solely on administrative warrants to arrest aliens subject to final orders of removal at their place of residence, the Department’s Office of General Counsel has recently determined that the U.S. Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act and immigration regulations do not prohibit the use of administrative warrants for this purpose,” reads the document shared by the group.
The alleged circulation of this document among ICE agents comes at a time when President Donald Trump’s administration has stepped up its raids in states such as Minnesota, where there have been cases of ICE raiding homes without warrants.
A U.S. citizen named ChongLy Thao reported that last Sunday immigration agents broke down the door of his Minnesota home without a warrant and detained him at gunpoint before taking him out of his home in his underwear at a time when temperatures were below zero degrees Celsius.
Filed under: ICE allows raids without warrants
With information from EFE
