Administrative Warrants, Immigration Arrests, and the Fourth Amendment

Brent Skorup

A few weeks ago, the AP and other news outlets obtained a whistleblower complaint alleging an illegal policy change at ICE. It appears that DHS changed ICE policy in May 2025 to allow agents to enter homes with an administrative warrant—rather than a judicial warrant—to arrest aliens who have been issued final orders of removal. This change in policy appears to have been made quietly. But after the whistleblower complaint and subsequent news coverage, DHS officials took...