Whistleblowers Reveal the Directive was Rolled out in Secret and Briefed Verbally to Prevent Oversight
Two anonymous WhistleblowerAid.org clients have come forward to the U.S. Senate with evidence that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has authorized – and even trained – Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to forcibly enter homes without consent or a judicial warrant. The whistleblowers assert that this is a flagrant violation of the Fourth Amendment.This disclosure is particularly timely and relevant given recent news reports of ICE officers breaking into homes, including those of U.S. citizens, without a judicial warrant and forcibly removing the residents.
The disclosure, submitted by WhistleblowerAid.org to the U.S. Senate, focuses on a secretive memo issued by Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons on May 12, 2025. That memo authorizes ICE agents to rely on a Form I-205, an administrative warrant of removal/deportation to forcibly enter someone’s home. This “policy” flies in the face of longstanding federal law enforcement training material and policies, all rooted in constitutional assessments. In other words: the Form I-205 does not authorize ICE agents to enter a home. Training new recruits, many of whom have zero prior law enforcement training or experience, to seemingly disregard the Fourth Amendment, should be of grave concern to everyone.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal said today:
“Every American should be terrified by this secret ICE policy authorizing its agents to kick down your door and storm into your home. It is a legally and morally abhorrent policy that exemplifies the kinds of dangerous, disgraceful abuses America is seeing in real time. In our democracy, with vanishingly rare exceptions, the government is barred from breaking into your home without a judge giving a green light. Government agents have no right to ransack your bedroom or terrorize your kids on a whim or personal desire. I am deeply grateful to brave whistleblowers who have come forward and put the rights of their fellow Americans first.”
“My Republican colleagues who claim to value personal rights against government overreach now have an opportunity and obligation to prove that rhetoric is real. They must hold hearings and join me in demanding the Trump Administration answer for this lawless policy.”
“No court has ever found that ICE agents have such legal authority to enter homes without a judicial warrant,” said Whistleblower Aid Senior Vice President and Special Counsel David Kligerman. “This administration’s secretive policy advocates conduct that the Supreme Court has described as ‘the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed’ – that is the warrantless physical entry of a home.’ This is precisely what the Fourth Amendment was created to prevent.”
What is particularly concerning is that while the memo is labelled “All-Hands”, it was allegedly not widely distributed. Instead, the disclosure claims that the memo was rolled out in a secretive manner in which some agents were verbally briefed while others were allowed to view it but not keep a copy. It was reportedly clear that anyone who openly spoke out against this new directive would be fired.
Kligerman continued, “If ICE believes that this policy is consistent with the law, why not publicize it? Perhaps they’ve hidden it precisely because it cannot withstand legal scrutiny. Policies which impact fundamental constitutional rights, particularly one which the Supreme Court has called the greatest of equals among the Bill of Rights, should be discussed openly with the American people. It cannot be undone by hidden policy memos.”
The disclosure comes as ICE expands large-scale enforcement operations nationwide, raising the risk that these warrantless home entries will increase the likelihood that agents will enter the wrong home or residences of U.S. citizens. In a recent case, a federal district court judge in Minnesota ruled that ICE violated the “Fourth Amendment” when it “forcibly entered” the home to arrest someone subject to a final order of removal “without his consent and without a judicial warrant.”
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