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A whistle-blower group said a memo apparently signed by the leader of Immigration and Customs Enforcement violated constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

Federal immigration agents performed an operation to arrest two people in a home in Minneapolis.Credit...Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Jan. 21, 2026, 9:43 p.m. ET

A whistle-blower group on Wednesday said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials drafted guidance saying that deportation officers are allowed to enter homes to arrest people without a judicial warrant.

The claim was based on information provided by two government officials, said the group, called Whistleblower Aid. The group released a copy of a memo dated May 12, 2025, and apparently signed by Todd Lyons, the acting leader of ICE, that advises agents that they can enter homes on the basis of an administrative warrant.

An administrative warrant is different from a judicial arrest warrant. It is typically drawn up after an immigration judge has ordered someone deported, and serves as the basis to arrest them. A judicial arrest warrant is a court order based on probable cause that a crime was committed.

Whistleblower Aid said the guidance violates the constitutional protection from unreasonable search and seizure.

“D.H.S.’s new policy to permit arrests in an alien’s residence, without a judicial warrant or consent, is a complete break from the law and undercuts the Fourth Amendment and the rights it protects,” Whistleblower Aid said in a statement. “As far as our clients understand, D.H.S. has failed to articulate any change in the law to allow for a policy reversal of this magnitude.”

The Times has not independently verified the memo or spoken to the whistle-blowers involved, who are described as two U.S. government officials. The whistle-blowers’ claim was reported earlier by The Associated Press.

One Homeland Security Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, had not seen the memo but said their understanding was that the idea was piloted in one or two locations earlier this year.

The whistle-blower group said that the memo was not widely distributed within ICE. Rather, some ICE officials were provided an opportunity to read the memo in the presence of a supervisor and give it back. One of the whistle-blowers, according to the group, said that agents were entering homes without judicial warrants in Texas, and that the practice was carried out there because of the conservative judges in the area.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, called for hearings and demanded an explanation from the Homeland Security Department’s leader, Kristi Noem.

“Every American should be terrified by this secret ICE policy authorizing its agents to kick down your door and storm into your home,” Mr. Blumenthal said in a statement. “It is a legally and morally abhorrent policy that exemplifies the kinds of dangerous, disgraceful abuses America is seeing in real time.”

Department of Homeland Security officials did not contest the specific allegations made by the whistle-blower group.

“Every illegal alien who D.H.S. serves administrative warrants/I-205s,” said Tricia McLaughlin, an agency spokeswoman, has had “full due process” and a final order of removal from an immigration judge.

“The officers issuing these administrative warrants also have found probable cause,” she added. “For decades, the Supreme Court and Congress have recognized the propriety of administrative warrants in cases of immigration enforcement.”

ICE officers historically have relied on people voluntarily opening the doors of their homes to make arrests, or by tracking down targets in public spaces. The inability to enter homes has long stymied officers, in part because rights advocates advise immigrants not to open their doors when immigration officials arrive.

A 2025 Homeland Security training manual indicated that the agency itself agreed that entering homes without a judicial warrant was prohibited.

“Entering a home to arrest a person without a warrant or an exception to the warrant requirement is typically a violation of the Fourth Amendment, regardless of whether the officer has probable cause to arrest the suspect,” the manual reads.

The May 25 memo acknowledged that relying on administrative warrants to enter homes would be a new practice.

“Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) has not historically relied on administrative warrants alone to arrest aliens subject to final orders of removal in their place of residence,” the memo reads, “the D.H.S. Office of General Counsel has recently determined that the U.S. Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act and the immigration regulations do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants for this purpose.”

The memo adds that officers and agents must knock and announce themselves first but says that if an immigrant does not respond, they can use a “reasonable amount” of force to enter the home.

“To be clear, a Form I-205 is not a search warrant and should only be used to enter the residence of the subject alien to conduct an administrative immigration arrest,” the memo states.

Former ICE officials were concerned about the disclosure and its implications.

“I profoundly disagree with the legal interpretation of the Constitution and laws related to administrative warrants in this memo and believe ICE is undermining our constitutional order in their zeal to meet a quota,” said Kerry Doyle, who was the top ICE lawyer during the Biden administration.

Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The Times.

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