loading . . . ICEās Warrantless Home Entry Policy Violates the Fourth Amendment Text SIGN PGJEEK to 50409 ā Recent reporting has revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a secret internal memo dated May 12, 2025, authorizing agents to forcibly enter private homes without a judicial warrant, relying instead on administrative warrants issued within the executive branch.
This policy violates the Fourth Amendment.
For more than four decades, Supreme Court precedent has drawn a āfirm line at the entrance to the house.ā In Payton v. New York, the Court held that law enforcement may not enter a home to make an arrest without a warrant issued by a neutral and detached judicial officer, absent narrow, case-specific exceptions such as consent or true exigent circumstances. Administrative convenience, internal authorization, or asserted probable cause by officers in the field are not sufficient.
ICEās reported guidance attempts to erase that constitutional line by substituting executive-branch paperwork for judicial authorization. Administrative warrantsāsigned by immigration officers who are employees of the enforcing agencyāare not judicial warrants. They do not satisfy the Fourth Amendment requirement that a judge independently assess probable cause before the government crosses the threshold of a home.
The memo itself reportedly acknowledges that the Department of Homeland Security āhas not historically relied on administrative warrants aloneā to enter residences. Nevertheless, it asserts that DHS lawyers now believe the Constitution does not prohibit such entries. That claim directly contradicts controlling Supreme Court law, including Payton and Steagald v. United States, which makes clear that even a valid arrest warrant does not grant law enforcement a general license to enter homes without judicial authorization.
Equally troubling is how this policy was handled. According to whistleblower disclosures, the memo was not formally distributed, was conveyed largely through verbal briefings, and agents were instructed to read and return the document. This extraordinary secrecy raises serious concerns about whether ICE leadership understood the guidance would not withstand judicial or congressional scrutiny.
Exceptions to the warrant requirementāsuch as consent or exigent circumstancesāare narrow, fact-specific doctrines. They cannot be transformed into a standing policy authorizing forced home entry as a routine enforcement practice. An emergency cannot be declared by memo, and necessity cannot be institutionalized to bypass constitutional limits.
If allowed to stand, this policy would normalize warrantless home entry by federal agents and undermine one of the Constitutionās most fundamental protections. Once the Fourth Amendmentās protections at the homeās threshold are weakened, the damage will not be confined to immigration enforcement.
Congress has both the authority and the obligation to act. We urge you to:
1. Publicly repudiate ICEās reliance on administrative warrants for home entry as inconsistent with the Fourth Amendment.
2. Conduct immediate oversight and investigation into the drafting, legal review, approval, dissemination, and implementation of the May 12, 2025 memo, including holding responsible officials accountable through removal from leadership roles, disciplinary action, and referral for appropriate consequences where warranted.
3. Enact statutory safeguards explicitly prohibiting ICE and DHS from entering homes without a judicial warrant.
4. Use Congressās power of the purse to condition funding on full compliance with Fourth Amendment requirements.
5. Replace and reform ICE to ensure constitutional limits are respected, enforced, and institutionalized.
The Fourth Amendment is not optional. It cannot be rewritten by internal memoranda or displaced by administrative forms. Congress must act now to stop an unconstitutional practice before it becomes entrenched as standard operating procedure. https://resist.bot/petitions/PGJEEK
