American Oversight recently obtained U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) records showing that despite formal legal training materials instructing officers that they generally cannot enter a residence without a judicial warrant or consent, instructors were directed to tell cadets that the use of controversial administrative warrants to enter a home were “under review.”
The documents align with sworn testimony from former ICE attorney-turned-whistleblower Ryan Schwank, who told Congress on Monday that he was instructed to train cadets using guidance from Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons’ memo that “claimed ICE officers could enter homes without a judicial warrant” — guidance he was told to read in his supervisor’s presence but not to document.
Schwank noted that Lyons’ memo “authorized the very conduct that DHS in its own 2025 legal training materials had called the ‘chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed’ — that is physical entry of the home without consent or a proper warrant.” These legal training materials were among the records we obtained.
“Our basic constitutional rights are threatened if federal law enforcement agencies tell their officers to follow unlawful guidance and to keep it secret,” said Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight. “These records bolster the whistleblower’s claims and suggest a troubling disconnect between ICE’s formal legal training and the way ICE officers were instructed to enter...
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