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A dispute over stricter warrant requirements for federal immigration officers is among the sticking points holding up a deal to end the partial government shutdown.Democrats say they won’t restore Department of Homeland Security funding, which lapsed over the weekend, unless Republicans agree to new guardrails on immigration enforcement. Their demands include requiring ICE to obtain a judicial warrant, rather than an administrative one, to enter private property. “DHS personnel are now forcing their way into private homes without a judicial warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, said during a recent hearing.While testifying on Capitol Hill last week, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons defended the legality of the policy shift, which was previously outlined in an internal memo. The memo was disclosed in a whistleblower complaint to Congress and later obtained by the Associated Press. Asked why the change was rolled out in secret, Lyons told the Senate Homeland Security Committee, “I didn’t keep it a secret. If sending an email to a workforce of 30,000 people is keeping something secret, it’s a bad secret.”The memo authorizes ICE agents to forcibly enter a home solely based on an administrative warrant, which is approved by an immigration officer, rather than a judicial warrant, which is signed by a judge. This policy is currently being applied to arrests of undocumented immigrants who have received a final order of removal, according to DHS. In a press release earlier this month, DHS argued that this approach “is consistent with broad judicial recognition that illegal aliens aren’t entitled to the same Fourth Amendment protections as U.S. citizens.”Spencer Amdur, a staff attorney at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, said that interpretation “flies in the face of decades of Supreme Court precedent.” He said Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures cover citizens and non-citizens alike. He said lowering the bar for immigrants puts Americans at risk, too. “Even the short record of them applying this new policy has shown the dangers for all of us if these ICE agents sort of have a free license to enter people’s homes without their consent,” Amdur said.Democrats have pointed to an incident last month in Minnesota, where ICE agents pulled ChongLy “Scott” Thao, a U.S. citizen, from his home in his underwear in freezing temperatures. Thao, who was not the intended target of the operation, said federal officers bashed down his door without a warrant. DHS claimed that they were looking for two convicted sex offenders, but Thao said he had never seen the men before. Administrative warrants have long been used as the basis for ICE arrests in public spaces.Amdur argues ICE should be required to seek judicial warrants for all immigration arrests, not just those on private property. “You don’t want the law enforcement agency to be policing itself, so to speak, to be the one reviewing whether its arrests are reasonable,” Amdur said. Republicans argue that adding a higher level of approval would hamper immigration enforcement to the detriment of public safety.”Democrats are trying to lay so many rules and procedural hurdles for ICE to clear that they won’t be able to do their jobs,” Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, said in an interview on Wednesday. It remains to be seen if a bipartisan compromise can be reached on this issue and other Democratic demands. Democrats sent their latest counteroffer to the White House on Monday night.
A dispute over stricter warrant requirements for federal immigration officers is among the sticking points holding up a deal to end the partial government shutdown.
Democrats say they won’t restore Department of Homeland Security funding, which lapsed over the weekend, unless Republicans agree to new guardrails on immigration enforcement. Their demands include requiring ICE to obtain a judicial warrant, rather than an administrative one, to enter private property.
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“DHS personnel are now forcing their way into private homes without a judicial warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, said during a recent hearing.
While testifying on Capitol Hill last week, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons defended the legality of the policy shift, which was previously outlined in an internal memo. The memo was disclosed in a whistleblower complaint to Congress and later obtained by the Associated Press.
Asked why the change was rolled out in secret, Lyons told the Senate Homeland Security Committee, “I didn’t keep it a secret. If sending an email to a workforce of 30,000 people is keeping something secret, it’s a bad secret.”
The memo authorizes ICE agents to forcibly enter a home solely based on an administrative warrant, which is approved by an immigration officer, rather than a judicial warrant, which is signed by a judge. This policy is currently being applied to arrests of undocumented immigrants who have received a final order of removal, according to DHS.
In a press release earlier this month, DHS argued that this approach “is consistent with broad judicial recognition that illegal aliens aren’t entitled to the same Fourth Amendment protections as U.S. citizens.”
Spencer Amdur, a staff attorney at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, said that interpretation “flies in the face of decades of Supreme Court precedent.” He said Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures cover citizens and non-citizens alike. He said lowering the bar for immigrants puts Americans at risk, too.
“Even the short record of them applying this new policy has shown the dangers for all of us if these ICE agents sort of have a free license to enter people’s homes without their consent,” Amdur said.
Democrats have pointed to an incident last month in Minnesota, where ICE agents pulled ChongLy “Scott” Thao, a U.S. citizen, from his home in his underwear in freezing temperatures. Thao, who was not the intended target of the operation, said federal officers bashed down his door without a warrant. DHS claimed that they were looking for two convicted sex offenders, but Thao said he had never seen the men before.
Administrative warrants have long been used as the basis for ICE arrests in public spaces.
Amdur argues ICE should be required to seek judicial warrants for all immigration arrests, not just those on private property.
“You don’t want the law enforcement agency to be policing itself, so to speak, to be the one reviewing whether its arrests are reasonable,” Amdur said.
Republicans argue that adding a higher level of approval would hamper immigration enforcement to the detriment of public safety.
“Democrats are trying to lay so many rules and procedural hurdles for ICE to clear that they won’t be able to do their jobs,” Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, said in an interview on Wednesday.
It remains to be seen if a bipartisan compromise can be reached on this issue and other Democratic demands. Democrats sent their latest counteroffer to the White House on Monday night.
