ICE Claims Right to Forcibly Enter Homes Without Warrant: Leaked Memo

The Associated Press is reporting ICE is asserting that federal immigration officers have the power to forcibly enter homes without a judicial warrant, in what legal experts say is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment. ICE made the sweeping claim in a secretive memo dated May 12. Two whistleblowers shared the memo with Senator Richard Blumenthal. On Wednesday, Blumenthal said, “It is a legally and morally abhorrent policy that exemplifies the kinds of dangerous, disgraceful abuses America is seeing in real time.” The revelation of the memo comes just days after armed, masked agents in St. Paul, Minnesota, battered down the door of a home and — without a warrant — arrested a man who was led out of his home in his underwear in subfreezing weather. It turned out the man, ChongLy “Scott” Thao, was a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Laos. He was later released.