Federal immigration officers are asserting authority to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press.
The AP reported that the memo, dated May 12, 2025, is signed by Todd Lyons, who is identified in the report as the acting ICE director. The memo describes a legal position that, according to its text, the Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act and immigration regulations do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants to arrest people at their residences.
The AP said the memo authorizes the use of force to enter a residence based solely on an administrative warrant used to arrest someone who has a final order of removal. It also said the memo allows officers to proceed in that way when the final order comes from an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals, or a district judge or magistrate judge.
The memo includes instructions that officers should knock on the door, identify themselves, and explain why they are at the residence. It says entry is limited to the hours after 6 a.m. and before 10 p.m., and it requires that people inside be given a “reasonable chance to act lawfully.” If admittance is refused, the memo instructs officers to use only a “necessary and reasonable amount of force” and to provide proper notification of authority and intent to enter.
AP also reported that, while the memo is addressed to all ICE personnel, it had been shown only to “select DHS officials” and then shared with some employees. It said Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit that assists whistleblowers, described the complaint it received as coming from two anonymous U.S. government officials and said the memo was disclosed after limited access, including an instance where one whistleblower viewed the document only in the presence of a supervisor and was not allowed to take notes.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin responded to the AP by email, saying that everyone served with an administrative warrant already had “full due process and a final order of removal.” She added that officers issuing those warrants found probable cause for the person’s arrest and said the Supreme Court and Congress have recognized the “propriety of administrative warrants” in immigration enforcement cases, without elaborating on how the memo’s guidance is applied in practice.
The AP reported that it witnessed ICE officers on Jan. 11 in Minneapolis ramming through the front door of a home of Liberian man Garrison Gibson and entering with tactical gear and rifles drawn. The AP said documents it reviewed indicated the agents had only an administrative warrant tied to a deportation order from 2023, and that there was no judge authorizing the raid on private property.
The AP said the memo’s language “does not detail how that determination was made nor what its legal repercussions might be.” It also reported that Whistleblower Aid said newly hired ICE officers being trained for a nationwide enforcement expansion at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Georgia were being told to follow the memo’s guidance, even though the complaint described written training materials as contradicting it.
In an assessment of the memo, AP reported that Lindsay Nash, a law professor at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law, said the memo “flies in the face” of what the Fourth Amendment protects against and what ICE had historically said about its authorities. She warned there was “enormous potential for overreach,” with the possibility of mistakes “with very, very serious consequences,” according to the AP report.
David Kligerman, senior vice president and special counsel at Whistleblower Aid, told the AP that it took time for clients to find a “safe and legal path to disclose it to lawmakers and the American people.” The AP said the directive has not been widely shared within the agency, and that it is unclear how broadly it has been applied, though the report said training and enforcement actions are tied to the memo’s guidance.