Protestors have taken to the streets to protest I.C.E. raids that are allegedly targeting undocumented immigrants.
Americans have lived their entire lives knowing that law enforcement could not storm into their homes without a judicial warrant.
Now, I.C.E. agents have the authority to storm into the homes of American citizens and residents because of a memo that contradicts the United States Constitution.
Rebecca Santana of The Associated Press reported, “Federal immigration is 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, making 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 memo reads, “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.”
On social media, many people have expressed their disgust with this memo, believing it will lead to many Americans using their Second Amendment rights if I.C.E. agents enter their home without a warrant.
And although I.C.E. agents are allegedly only targeting undocumented immigrants, many American citizens have gotten snatched by these agents erroneously, some even removed from their homes, nearly naked in snowy weather.
Jack Brook of The Associated Press reported, “Federal immigration agents forced open a door and detained a U.S. citizen in his Minnesota home at gunpoint without a warrant, then led him out onto the streets in his underwear in subfreezing conditions, according to his family and videos obtained by The Associated Press
“ChongLy ‘Scott’ Thao told the AP that his daughter-in-law woke him up from a nap Sunday afternoon and said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were banging at the door of his residence in St. Paul. He told her not to open it. Masked agents then forced their way in and pointed guns at the family, yelling at them, Thao recalled.”
Thao said, “I was shaking. They didn’t show any warrant, they just broke down the door.”
In the fourth largest city in the country, Houston Police Department (HPD) officers have gotten into deadly shootouts with residents based on warrants granted based on lies by law enforcement.
A Houston couple was falsely accused of being major drug dealers.
Therefore, when HPD officers entered their home with a no-knock warrant, they exchanged gunfire with the officers believing that their home was getting burglarized.
HPD then began to release lies about the couple’s involvement with the drug trade until family members and close friends began disputing those reports.
The deadly encounter led to a police officer being found guilty of murder because the officer involved had a history of concocting fake stories to receive warrants on Houstonians.
On Sept. 25, 2024, The Associated Press reported, “A former Houston police officer was convicted…of murder in the deaths of a couple during a 2019 drug raid that revealed systemic corruption problems within the police department’s narcotics unit.
“A jury found Gerald Goins guilty of two counts of murder in the January 2019 deaths of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his 58-year-old wife Rhogena Nicholas. The couple, and their dog, were fatally shot after officers burst into their home using a ‘no-knock’ warrant that didn’t require them to announce themselves before entering…
“During the trial…prosecutors presented testimony and evidence they showed Goins lied to get a search warrant that falsely portrayed the couple as dangerous drug dealers.
“During closing arguments in the trial, prosecutor Keaton Forcht said Goines’ actions wrongly led officers to the couple’s home, resulting in a violent confrontation in which the couple was killed, and four officers were shot and wounded and a fifth was injured.”
In St. Paul, Thao, who has been in America for decades, said he told his daughter to get his identification when the I.C.E. agents entered his home.
He said that the I.C.E. agents said that they did not want to see his identification.
The entire ordeal had Thao’s 4-year-old grandson in tears.
Later, Thao said, the I.C.E. agents drove him to the middle of nowhere, made him get out in the snow, then asked for his identification, which they had previously prevented his daughter from retrieving.
When I.C.E agents realized Thao was an American citizen with no criminal record, they drove him back to his St. Paul, Minn. home.
Upon arriving at the house, the I.C.E. agents finally let him show them his identification.
They then apologized for the episode, specifically for detaining him and breaking his door.
I.C.E said that they targeted Thao’s home because they believed two convicted sex offenders lived there.
Thao’s family vehemently denied that any sex offenders live at the house.
The Associated Press reported, “Thao told AP that only he, his son and daughter-in-law and his grandson live at the rental home. Neither they nor the property owner are listed in the Minnesota sex offender registry. The nearest sex offender listed as living in the zip code is more than two blocks away.”
Thao’s episode did not end fatally, despite the incorrect justification for the raid.
But as Houstonians can attest, misinformation or corruption can lead to fatalities when law enforcement barge into innocent people’s home with no justification.
