Internal Memo Authorizes ICE To Enter Homes Without Judicial Warrants In Some Cases

CBS Bay Area

January 22, 2026

A newly disclosed whistleblower complaint indicates that Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorized its officers to enter homes without judicial warrants in the cases of people with deportation orders, a sweeping reversal of longstanding rules.

Historically, ICE has told its officers that they could not rely on administrative immigration warrants — signed by officials at the agency, not judges — to enter people's homes, due to constitutional protections against warrantless searches.

But a May 2025 memo disclosed Wednesday by two U.S. government whistleblowers permitted ICE officers to use those administrative immigration warrants to enter residences by force to arrest unauthorized immigrants who had been ordered deported by an immigration judge or court.

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