Democrats want to stop ICE from using administrative warrants to enter homes. Trump’s team says it won’t happen

Democrats are demanding the Trump administration rescind a secretive memo that gives immigration officers permission to forcibly enter homes without a warrant from a judge, in what critics and legal experts have slammed as a flagrant violation of the Fourth Amendment.

But the calls are a nonstarter for congressional Republicans and administration officials who see so-called administrative warrants as a critical tool for the president’s sweeping efforts to arrest and deport tens of thousands of people.

Formal demands from Democratic lawmakers and federal lawsuits urging the courts to block the memo join a list for urgent Homeland Security reforms before a funding standoff that could shut down a part of the federal government.

Whistleblowers within the agency provided Congress with a memo from May 2025 signed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Todd Lyons that instructs officers to rely on internal permissions to enter a person’s home, rather than seek a warrant from a judge.

They are a “key operational thing” that White House deputy chief of policy Stephen Miller and other top immigration officials “do not want to budge on,” one GOP strategist told Politico.

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“Administrative warrants work,” Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales told CBS Face the Nation. “I want to give law enforcement every tool they need to go out and apprehend these convicted criminals that are loose in our community.”

Last week, Homeland Security issued a lengthy press release defending the use of administrative warrants while attacking “the mainstream media’s false narratives” about them.

ICE’s Form I-205 serves as an internal administrative document, drafted and signed by ICE officers themselves, and is not reviewed by a judge.

In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, the agency’s general counsel James Percivil suggested that “illegal aliens” are not protected by the Fourth Amendment.

“Under federal immigration law, officers may issue an administrative warrant, which means that the probable-cause finding is made by an executive-branch officer rather than a judicial officer,” he wrote.

“This is consistent with broad judicial recognition that illegal aliens aren’t entitled to the same Fourth Amendment protections as U.S. citizens,” he added. “It is also consistent with the Supreme Court’s admonition that the touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is whether the search or seizure is ‘reasonable,’ not whether it is supported by a judicial warrant.”

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Federal judges, constitutional law experts and Democratic members of Congress have roundly rejected the administration’s defense.

“ICE does not have the authority to overturn any law, let alone one of the foundational constitutional rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights,” a group of House Democrats wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this month.

“You must rescind this memo and adhere to the requirements of the Fourth Amendment by ensuring your agents obtain a judicial warrant prior to making any non-consensual entry into a private residence,” they added.

Critics have pointed to the case of ChongLy “Scott” Thao in St. Paul, Minnesota, who was dragged from his house at gunpoint in his underwear. Thao is a U.S. citizen, and the man ICE officers intended to arrest was already in prison.

In another case, agents forcibly entered the home of Garrison Gibson, a Liberian man, without a warrant. A federal judge later ruled that his arrest violated his Constitutional rights and ordered his release.

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A federal lawsuit from a group of civil rights and immigrant organizations is calling on a federal judge to intervene and revoke ICE’s “home invasion policy.”

“We will not stand by while ICE engages in unlawful and dangerous practices,” said Alexandra Oliver-Davila with the Greater Boston Latino Network, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.

“We will not be intimidated by fear tactics targeting our neighbors. We stand with immigrants, communities of color, and everyone fighting for dignity and the Constitution,” she added.

“The Fourth Amendment exists precisely to prevent government agents from breaking into people’s homes without any judicial process or oversight,” according to Brooke Simone, staff attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights and one of the attorneys leading the lawsuit. “ICE’s policy is a direct assault on these core constitutional principles and undermines our privacy, safety, and dignity. It puts everyone at risk.”

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, whose office received the whistleblower report, called the policy “legally and morally abhorrent.”

“My Republican colleagues who claim to value personal rights against government overreach now have an opportunity and obligation to prove that rhetoric is real,” he said. “They must hold hearings and join me in demanding the Trump Administration answer for this lawless policy.”