ICE’s May 12 memo, part of A Disclosure of whistleblowers Which he got APIt says that “although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not historically relied on administrative warrants alone to detain aliens subject to final orders of removal at their place of residence, the DHS Office of the General Counsel recently determined that the U.S. Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and immigration regulations do not prohibit reliance on administrative warrants for this purpose.”
The disclosure was sent on January 7 to the US Senate by the Whistleblower Assistance Group, which “keeps the identities of whistleblowers unknown even from oversight investigators,” according to the document. She points out that although it was directed to “all ICE employees,” the apparently unconstitutional memo “was directed.” no It has been officially distributed to all employees.”
Instead, “it is made available to select DHS officials who are then directed to verbally brief the new policy to work. These supervisors then show the memo to certain employees, such as our client, and direct them to read the memo and return it to the supervisor,” the disclosure details. “Newly hired ICE agents — many of whom have no law enforcement background — are now directed to rely solely on” an administrative warrant drafted and signed by an ICE official to enter homes and make arrests.
Asked about the May 12 memo, signed by acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told The Guardian: AP And that every person employed by DHS under an administrative warrant has already received “full due process and a final order of removal,” and the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress have recognized “the validity of administrative orders in immigration enforcement cases.”
However, as Whistleblower Aid’s Senior Vice President and Special Counsel David Kligerman He stressed In a statement issued Wednesday, “No court has ever found that ICE agents have such legal authority to enter homes without a warrant.”
“This administration’s secrecy policy invites conduct that the Supreme Court has called ‘the principal evil targeted by the wording of the Fourth Amendment’ — namely, physical entry into a home without a warrant,” he noted. “This is exactly what the Fourth Amendment was created to prevent.”
“If ICE believes this policy is consistent with the law, why doesn’t it make it public?” he asked. “They may have hidden them precisely because they cannot withstand legal scrutiny. Policies that affect fundamental constitutional rights, especially those that the Supreme Court has called the greatest equals of the Bill of Rights, should be discussed openly with the American people. They cannot be undone through hidden policy memos.”
Lawyers, journalists, and other critics responded in kind to this question APReports on social media. Alejandra Caraballo of the Harvard Cyber Law Clinic Announce That “the Fourth Amendment literally exists to prevent that.”
Bradley P. Moss, an attorney specializing in national security, federal employment, and security clearance law litigation, He said“Do you remember when the Fourth Amendment still existed?”
Aaron Reichlin Melnyk is a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council books: “It’s been accepted for generations that the only thing that can allow agents to break into your home is a warrant signed by a judge. No wonder ICE hid that warrant!”
He continued: “This is the Trump administration ignoring the Fourth Amendment in pursuit of a mass deportation agenda,” highlighting a footnote indicating that “they will not even rule out allowing warrantless home invasions of people who have not even ordered their removal!”
“In short, this secret memo explains a lot of what we’ve seen over the past months, including a home raid in Minneapolis where ICE officers served no warrant before breaking down the door,” he said. “It turns out they were secretly told they didn’t need one!”
While Reichlin-Melnick shared photos of A.J scene Armed immigration agents used a battering ram to enter a home in Minneapolis and arrest a Liberian man, and federal agents recently broke down the door of a residence in nearby St. Paul, Minnesota, and arrested Chongli “Scott” Thao, a US citizen who was later released.
the AP The reports and responses to the leaked memo came as the Trump administration on Wednesday sent immigration agents to Maine in what it called “Operation Pick Up Today,” mirroring federal deployments not only to Minnesota — where Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross shot Renee Judd, a U.S. citizen, in her car earlier this month — but also to Illinois and California.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, I opened an investigation on reports of unconstitutional detentions of US citizens by immigration agents in October, and on Wednesday demanded answers about new whistleblower revelations.
Blumenthal sender Lists questions and records requests submitted to Lyons and US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem as well Benjamin C. HoffmanDirector of Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers. Senator too books To Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), urging them to subpoena ICE and DHS leaders to testify before their committees.
“Every American should be horrified by this secret ICE policy that allows its agents to break down your front door and break into your home,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “It is a policy that is legally and morally abhorrent and exemplifies the kinds of dangerous and shameful abuses America is witnessing in real time.”
He continued: “In our democracy, with rare exceptions, the government is prohibited from breaking into your home without a judge giving the green light.” “Government agents do not have the right to ransack your bedroom or terrorize your children on a personal whim or desire. I am deeply grateful to the courageous whistleblowers who came forward and put the rights of their fellow Americans first.”
“My fellow Republicans who claim to value personal rights in the face of government overreach now have an opportunity and an obligation to prove that the rhetoric is real,” the senator added. “They should hold hearings and join me in demanding that the Trump administration respond to this lawless policy.”
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