Secret ICE memo authorized warrantless home entry for eight months before exposure

Whistleblowers revealed in January 2026 that Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons had signed a secret May 12, 2025 memo directing agents to use Form I-205 — an administrative warrant signed by an ICE supervisor, not a judge — to forcibly enter private homes. The memo was circulated covertly: some agents received only verbal briefings, others could read it but not retain a copy, and the memo explicitly warned that disclosure would result in termination. Constitutional scholars and a federal judge concluded the policy violated the Fourth Amendment's requirement for a judicial warrant before home entry, established in Payton v. New York (1980). The policy ran for eight months before two anonymous ICE agents filed a whistleblower complaint through Whistleblower Aid to the U.S. Senate on January 22, 2026.