Category: National Politics

WASHINGTON — Federal immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press, marking a sharp reversal of longstanding guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches.

The memo authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a more narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone with a final order of removal, a move that advocates say collides with Fourth Amendment protections and upends years of advice given to immigrant communities.

The shift comes as the Trump administration dramatically expands immigration arrests nationwide, deploying thousands of officers under a mass deportation campaign that is already reshaping enforcement tactics in cities such as Minneapolis.

For years, immigrant advocates, legal aid groups and local governments have urged people not to open their doors to immigration agents unless they are shown a warrant signed by a judge. That guidance is rooted in Supreme Court rulings that generally prohibit law enforcement from entering a home without judicial approval. The ICE directive directly undercuts that advice at a time when arrests are accelerating under the administration’s immigration crackdown.

The memo itself has not been widely shared within the agency, according to a whistleblower complaint, but its contents have been used to train new ICE officers who are being deployed into cities and towns to implement the president’s immigration crackdown. New ICE hires and those still in training are being told to follow the memo’s guidance instead of written training materials that actually contradict the memo, according to the whistleblower disclosure.

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

The change is almost certain to meet legal challenges and stiff criticism from advocacy groups and immigrant-friendly state and local governments that have spent years successfully urging people not to open their doors unless ICE shows them a warrant signed by a judge.

The Associated Press obtained the memo and whistleblower complaint from an official in Congress, who shared it on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive documents. The AP verified the authenticity of the accounts in the complaint.

The memo, signed by the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, and dated May 12, 2025, says: “Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not historically relied on administrative warrants alone to arrest aliens subject to final orders of removal in their place of residence, the DHS Office of the General Counsel has recently determined that the U.S. Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the immigration regulations do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants for this purpose.”

The memo does not detail how that determination was made nor what its legal repercussions might be.

When asked about the memo, Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement to the AP that everyone the department serves with an administrative warrant has already had “full due process and a final order of removal.”

She said the officers issuing those warrants have also found probable cause for the person’s arrest. She said the Supreme Court and Congress have “recognized the propriety of administrative warrants in cases of immigration enforcement,” without elaborating. McLaughlin did not respond to questions about whether ICE officers entered a person’s home since the memo was issued relying solely on an administrative warrant and if so, how often.

Recent arrests shine a light on tactics

Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit legal organization that assists workers exposing wrongdoings, said in the whistleblower complaint obtained by The Associated Press that it represents two anonymous U.S. government officials “disclosing a secretive — and seemingly unconstitutional – policy directive.”

A wave of recent high-profile arrests, many unfolding at private homes and businesses and captured on video, has shined a spotlight on immigration arrest tactics, including officers’ use of proper warrants.

Most immigration arrests are carried out under administrative warrants, internal documents issued by immigration authorities that authorize the arrest of a specific individual but do not permit officers to forcibly enter private homes or other non-public spaces without consent. Only warrants signed by judges carry that authority.

All law enforcement operations — including those conducted by ICE and Customs and Border Protection — are governed by the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which protects all people in the country from unreasonable searches and seizures.

People can legally refuse federal immigration agents entry into private property if the agents only have an administrative warrant, with some limited exceptions.

Federal agents this month rammed the door of the Minneapolis home of a Liberian man with a deportation order from 2023, who was then arrested. Documents reviewed by The AP revealed that the agents only had an administrative warrant — meaning there was no judge who authorized the raid on private property.

Memo shown to ‘select’ officials

The memo says ICE officers can forcibly enter homes and arrest immigrants using just a signed administrative warrant known as an I-205 if they have a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals or a district judge or magistrate judge.

The memo says officers must first knock on the door and share who they are and why they’re at the residence. They’re limited in the hours they can 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.

“Should the alien refuse admittance, ICE officers and agents should use only a necessary and reasonable amount of force to enter the alien’s residence, following proper notification of the officer or agent’s authority and intent to enter,” the memo reads.

The memo is addressed to all ICE personnel. But it has been shown only to “select DHS officials” who then shared it with some employees who were told to read it and return it, Whistleblower Aid wrote in the disclosure.

One of the two whistleblowers was allowed to view the memo only in the presence of a supervisor and then had to give it back. That person was not allowed to take notes. A whistleblower was able to access the document and lawfully disclose to Congress, Whistleblower Aid said.

Although the memo was issued in May, David Kligerman, senior vice president and special counsel at Whistleblower Aid, said it took time for its clients to find a “safe and legal path to disclose it to lawmakers and the American people.”

ICE told to rely on administrative warrants, memo says

ICE has been rapidly hiring thousands of new deportation officers to carry out the president’s mass deportation agenda. They’re trained at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Georgia.

During a visit there by The Associated Press in August, ICE officials said repeatedly that new officers were being trained to follow the Fourth Amendment.

But according to the whistleblowers’ account, newly hired ICE officers are being told they can rely solely on administrative warrants to enter homes to make arrests even though that conflicts with written Homeland Security training materials.

ICE officers often wait for hours for the person they’re hoping to arrest to come outside so they can make the arrest on the sidewalk or at the person’s work — public places where they are allowed to operate without the risk of infringing on the person’s Fourth Amendment rights.

Whistleblower Aid called the new policy a “complete break from the law” and said it undercuts the “Fourth Amendment and the rights it protects.”

KYIV, Ukraine — About 4,000 buildings in Kyiv remained without heating Wednesday, and nearly 60% of the Ukrainian capital was without power, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said, after days of Russian bombardment of Ukraine’s power grid and as President Donald Trump prepared to hold talks with the Ukrainian leader.

With temperatures falling as low as minus-4 F in Kyiv, Ukraine is seeing one of the coldest winters in years, deepening the hardship of Ukrainians almost four years after Russia launched a full-scale invasion.

A yearlong push by the Trump administration to stop the fighting hasn’t yielded any breakthrough, despite the American president issuing a series of deadlines, though efforts were set to continue.

Trump said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that he would meet Thursday with Zelensky.

“I want to stop it,” Trump said of the fighting Wednesday. “It’s a horrible war.”

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he plans to discuss peace proposals with Putin as well as hold talks with a Ukrainian delegation.

“We need a peace,” Witkoff said at Davos.

Putin confirmed late on Wednesday that Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected in Moscow on Thursday for talks. The Russian leader said that Moscow and Washington, among other things, are discussing the possibility of using Russian assets frozen in the U.S. for rebuilding “territories damaged by the hostilities” after a peace agreement is reached.

But with a dispute over Greenland’s future largely eclipsing other transatlantic issues at Davos, discussions about Ukraine’s defense looked likely to be sidelined.

Zelensky said last week his envoys would try to finalize with U.S. officials documents for a proposed peace settlement that relate to postwar security guarantees and economic recovery.

He added that the U.S. and Ukraine could sign the documents in Davos this week, but on Tuesday he said he wouldn’t be traveling to Switzerland and would focus on restoring power in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers is allocating 2.56 billion hryvnias (almost $60 million) from a reserve fund to purchase generators, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said Wednesday.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday urged the 32-nation alliance’s military chiefs to press their national governments to supply desperately needed air defense systems to Ukraine, helping it fend off Russia’s aerial attacks.

“Please use your influence to help your political masters to do even more,” Rutte said in a video message to top brass as they met at NATO’s Brussels headquarters.

“Look deep into your stockpiles to see what more you can give to Ukraine, particularly air defense interceptors. The time really is now,” he said.

Russia launched 97 drones and a ballistic missile at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said.

In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, attacks killed a 77-year-old man and a 72-year-old woman, according to Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 75 Ukrainian drones over several regions.

The international airports of Krasnodar, Sochi, Gelendzhik and Saratov briefly suspended flights overnight because of the drones.

In Adygea, more than 120 miles from the Ukrainian border, a Ukrainian drone caused a fire at an apartment building that injured 11 people, including two children, according to Gov. Murat Kumpilov.

JERUSALEM — Divisions emerged Wednesday over President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace as its ambitions have grown beyond Gaza, with some Western European countries declining to join, others remaining noncommittal and a group of Muslim countries agreeing to sign on.

The developments underscored European concerns over the expanded and divisive scope of the project — which some say may seek to rival the U.N. Security Council’s role in mediating global conflicts. Trump is looking to form the board officially this week on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Norway and Sweden said they won’t accept their invitations, after France also said no, while a bloc of Muslim-majority nations — Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — said in a joint statement that their leaders would join.

It was not immediately clear how many countries would accept. A White House official said about 30 countries were expected to join, and about 50 had been invited. Two other U.S. officials, who similiarly spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal plans not yet made public, said roughly 60 countries had been invited but only 18 had so far confirmed their participation.

Trump was sunny about the prospects ahead of an event Thursday tied to the board, saying of the countries that were invited that “some need parliamentary approval but for the most part, everybody wants to be on.”

Chaired by Trump, the board was originally conceived as a small group of world leaders overseeing the Gaza ceasefire plan. But the Trump administration’s ambitions have since expanded into a more sprawling concept, with Trump hinting at the board’s role as mediator for other global conflicts.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he’s agreed to join the board — a departure from an earlier stance when his office criticized the makeup of another committee tasked with overseeing Gaza.

Norway and Sweden say no, following in France’s footsteps

Norway’s state secretary, Kristoffer Thoner, said the Scandinavian country would not join the board because it “raises a number of questions that requires further dialogue with the United States.”

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on the sidelines of Davos that his country wouldn’t sign up for the board as the text currently stands, Swedish news agency TT reported, though the country hasn’t formally responded.

Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said “the time has not yet come to accept the invitation,” according to the STA news agency. The main concern is the board’s mandate is too broad and could seriously undermine international order based on the U.N. Charter, Golob said.

France declined the invitation earlier in the week. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, “Yes to implementing the peace plan presented by the president of the United States, which we wholeheartedly support, but no to creating an organization as it has been presented, which would replace the United Nations.”

The United Kingdom, the European Union’s executive arm, Canada, Russia, Ukraine and China also have not yet indicated their response to Trump’s invitations.

Several in the Middle East and beyond say they will join

Parties key to the Gaza ceasefire — Egypt and Israel — have said they would join the board, as have Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Morocco, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Netanyahu’s decision was significant because his office had previously said the composition of a Gaza executive committee — which includes Turkey, Israel’s key regional rival, and will work with those governing the territory day to day — was not coordinated with the Israeli government and ran “contrary to its policy,” without clarifying its objections.

The move could now put Netanyahu in conflict with some of the far-right allies in his coalition, such as Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has criticized the board and called for Israel to take unilateral responsibility for Gaza’s future.

Many questions remain about the board. When asked by a reporter on Tuesday if the board would replace the U.N., Trump said: “It might.”

White House names some officials to oversight boards

The White House said an executive board will work to carry out the vision of the Board of Peace.

The executive board’s members include U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and Trump’s deputy national security adviser Robert Gabriel.

Rowan is a co-founder Apollo Global Management, a U.S. asset-management firm. The billionaire businessman is also a philanthropist who has supported projects in Israel, the U.S. Jewish community, and the University of Pennsylvania, where he and Trump both studied.

Nickolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian politician and U.N. Mideast envoy, is to serve as the executive board’s representative overseeing day-to-day matters.