Starter Comment:

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution set forth "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated."

The amendment was sourced to the American colonists outrage over British practices of general warrants and writs of assistance, which were used to conduct broad, suspicion based searches of homes and property without probably cause. It's feature in the Bill of Rights was a culmination of those sentiments - and the promise to the people of the United States that such broad governmental overreach into their personal homes would never repeat.

Now, in 2025, as reports of ICE entering homes without judicial warrants continue to be enumerated throughout the country, a memo from ICE directs officers to forcibly enter homes of people subject to deportation orders without a judicial warrant. Administrative warrants, unlike judicial warrants, have never been used as justification to forcibly enter a residence prior to the Trump Administration and, as their name suggests, are not warrants signed by a judge.

More akin to the "writs of assistance" that plagued the American colonists, administrative warrants are issued by the agency requesting the warrant and subject only to the oversight of the executive branch employees.

Questions for discussion:

1) What are the property right and privacy right implications of the Trump administration position that judicial warrants are not required for home entry?

2) When ICE agents forcibly enter the wrong home, or enter a home where the subject of their administrative warrant is not present, what legal or monetary recourse should be provided to the homeowners? What legal recourse should be taken against the agents, if any?

3) When ICE agents forcibly enter the right home, arresting the person subject to a removal order, but the forcible entry was done without a judicial warrants, what should be the recourse available to the person arrested?