ICE Can Now Enter Your Home Without a Warrant to Look for Migrants, DOJ Memo Says [View all]

April 25, 2025 12:02 pm



A new memo from the Trump administration reveals something shocking: ICE agents have been told they can enter homes without a warrant to arrest migrants, based on little more than suspicion. The March 14 directive, signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, uses an obscure 18th-century law — the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — to give law enforcement nationwide the power to bypass basic constitutional protections.

According to the memo, agents can break into a home if getting a warrant is “impracticable,” and they don’t need a judge’s approval. Instead, immigration officers can sign their own administrative warrants. The bar for action is low — a “reasonable belief” that someone might be part of a Venezuelan gang is enough. The gang in question is Tren de Aragua, a group the Trump administration recently labeled a foreign terrorist organization. But legal experts say this is no justification for shredding the Constitution.

“The home under all constitutional law is the most sacred place where you have a right to privacy,” said immigration attorney Monique Sherman. “By this standard, spurious allegations of gang affiliation means the government can knock down your door.” The memo was obtained by watchdog group Property of the People through a public records request and posted online. What it shows is a sweeping expansion of federal power — one that skips over courts, skips over due process, and puts anyone suspected of gang ties at risk of deportation without a hearing. The DOJ memo makes one thing clear: anyone labeled an “Alien Enemy” is “not entitled to a hearing, appeal or judicial review.”

Civil rights groups are pushing back hard. Lee Gelernt, lead ACLU attorney in multiple court challenges, said: “Now we find out the Justice Department was authorizing officers to ignore the most bedrock principle of the Fourth Amendment by authorizing officers to enter homes without a judicial warrant.”

https://dailyboulder.com/ice-can-now-enter-your-home-without-a-warrant-to-find-migrants-doj-memo-says/