Immigrants often don't open the door to ICE, but that may no longer stop officers

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Since coming to the United States 30 years ago from Mexico, Fernando Perez said U.S. immigration officers have stopped by his home numerous times, but he has never once answered the door.

“There are rules and I know them,” said Perez, speaking in a mix of English and Spanish in a Home Depot parking lot where he has routinely sought work as a day laborer from contractors and people renovating their homes.

Over the decades it has become common knowledge in immigrant communities across the country to not open the door for federal immigration officers unless they show a warrant signed by a judge. The Supreme Court has long held that the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and seizure prohibits the government’s forced entry into someone’s home.

As a result, immigration officers have been forced to adapt by making arrests in public, which often requires long hours of surveillance outside homes as they wait to nab someone walking to the street.

But an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press states immigration officers can forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant, marking a dramatic shift that could upend the legal advice given to immigrants for decades.

The shift comes as President Donald Trump's administration dramatically expands immigration arrests nationwide under a mass deportation campaign that is already reshaping enforcement tactics in cities such as Minneapolis.

Perez said officers in the past would knock, wait and then move on.

“But if they are going to start coming into my home, where I am paying the rent — they are not paying the rent — that's the last straw,” he said.

Most immigration arrests have been carried out under administrative warrants, documents issued by immigration authorities that authorize an arrest. Traditionally they do not permit officers to enter private spaces without consent. Only warrants signed by independent judges have carried that authority.

It is unclear how broadly the memo's directive has been applied in immigration enforcement operations. AP witnessed ICE officers ramming through the front door of a Liberian man's home in Minneapolis on Jan. 11 with only an administrative warrant, wearing heavy tactical gear and with their rifles drawn.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is demanding congressional hearings on the ICE memo and calling on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for an explanation.

“Every American should be terrified by this secret ICE policy authorizing its agents to kick down your door and storm into your home,” Blumenthal said in a news release.

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court in 1980 that the “physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.”

The waiting game

For years, people have managed to evade arrest by skipping work and outings for days until agents move on. A senior ICE official once likened the surveillance experience to watching paint dry.

In July, the AP observed as immigration officers saw a Russian man enter his home in Irvine, California. They gave up when he didn’t leave after three hours. They waited longer for a Mexican man who never emerged from his house in nearby El Monte, though they caught up with him two days later at a convenience store.

ICE has tried what the agency called “knock and talks” to get people to answer the door by casually asking residents to step outside to answer a few questions, according to a 2020 lawsuit in which a federal judge found the practice illegal. In one case, they told a woman they were probation officers looking for her brother.

More often, immigration officers simply play the waiting game — a pace that is not conducive to Trump fulfilling his promise of mass deportations.

Not answering the door is a key part of know-your-rights trainings

Since shortly after ICE was created in 2003, advocacy groups and immigrant-friendly state and local governments have diligently spread the word that people should not open their doors for immigration officers unless they can show a warrant signed by a judge.

They’ve held know-your-rights trainings for communities, passed out flyers and posted videos on social media to teach immigrants how to protect themselves.

Ahilan Arulanantham, co-faculty director of the UCLA Law School’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy who has held such trainings, called the memo “quite disturbing.”

“Know-your-rights trainings have included that information for decades and even people who are only minimally aware of their rights learn that because it’s sort of the first and foundational elements of Fourth Amendment law,” he said. “They know to ask officers to slide the warrant under the door so they can see if it was signed by a judge or is an administrative warrant.”

In the predominantly Latino city of Santa Ana, where ICE agents were seen roaming the streets in recent days, several residents who did not want to give their names said they were well aware of that right. Jesus Delgado, a father of three, said the local elementary school sent out information to parents about what to do if ICE comes to your door.

“They send us bulletins, to not answer the door, to not answer any questions,” he said.

Another man said he learned that from TikTok.

Trump’s border czar Tom Homan has been highly critical of groups providing the information.

“They call it ‘know-your-rights,'” he said last year on CNN. "I call it ‘how to escape arrest.’”

Experts warn barging into homes could put all at risk

The memo says immigration officers can forcibly enter homes and arrest immigrants using solely a warrant signed by an immigration official if they have a final order of removal.

Officers must first knock on the door and share who they are and why they’re at the residence, and they can only go into the home after 6 a.m. and before 10 p.m. The people inside must be given a “reasonable chance to act lawfully.” But if that doesn’t work, the memo says, they can use force to go in.

Law enforcement and legal experts warn if more immigration officers barge into homes, everyone could be put at greater risk.

With stand-your-ground laws, people in many states have the right to shoot intruders, which could lead to officers being shot, or agents opening fire on someone coming at them with a baseball bat or other item they grab in the heat of a moment, Arulanantham said. ICE records often contain wrong addresses, which could further lead to confrontations and agents busting into homes of U.S. citizens.

Arulanantham said agents' aggressive tactics have been building since the Supreme Court lifted a lower court's order in September that barred federal agents in the Los Angeles area from indiscriminately stopping people because of their race, language, job or location.

“This would just be another step down that path,” he said. “Obviously it will be more significant because it suggests you're not safe even in your own house.”

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Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed to this report. Taxin reported from Santa Ana, Calif.