In the past, administrative warrants only provided ICE with the authority to arrest someone during a public encounter. They have never permitted entry into a person’s private home.
Six Minnesota residents have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, claiming that they were subject to unconstitutional, warrantless searches after masked agents broke into their home.
According to Minnesota Public Radio, the lead plaintiffs named in the lawsuit are identified as Garrison Gibson and his wife, Teyana Browa. Gibson, notes MPR News, is a Liberian national.
Attorneys for Gibson and Brown say that the couple was at home on January 11 with their school-age daughter and niece when masked ICE agents smashed their front door in with a battering ram. The family is now asking a Washington, D.C.-based federal court to block enforcement of a May 2025 memo in which ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons told agents that they have the authority to enter homes with nothing more than an administrative warrant.
“Without any notice and comment or reasoned explanation, DHS has now abandoned its longstanding policy in favor of a new one that tramples the Fourth Amendment rights of individuals and families across the country, including noncitizens with immigration status and citizens of the United States,” the lawsuit alleges.
The plaintiffs are being represented by the Protect Democracy Project and the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.
MPR notes that Gibson was subject to a removal order in 2009; it was predicated on a minor marijuana-related conviction that has since been expunged. Gibson has been allowed to live in the United States ever since, provided that he regularly checks in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Brown captured the raid on camera. In a video recording, she can be heard repeatedly asking ICE agents to show a warrant. An agent eventually complied, but the papers produced did not include a judge’s signature; they were, instead, signed by Department of Homeland Security Supervisory Detention and Deportation Officer Ariel Valdez.
In the past, administrative warrants only provided ICE with the authority to arrest someone during a public encounter. They have never permitted entry into a person’s private home.
The lawsuit claims that ICE leaders restricted information about the home-entry memo, largely because they recognized that it was “flagrantly unconstitutional.”
“Instruction on the Home Entry Memo itself was conducted under a veil of secrecy,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys said. “While trainees were instructed to follow the memo, none of the instructions were written down, nor was any record of what was taught maintained by the instructors.”
Sources
6 Minnesotans sue ICE after agents broke into their homes without judicial warrants
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