The Trump administration has allowed immigration agents to invade homes without a warrant for over a month, according to a leaked internal memo.
The memo, obtained by USA Today and issued by Attorney General Pam Bondi March 14, orders Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to break into the homes of suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without a warrant.
It stated that ICE can curb the “proactive procedures” put in place to obtain a warrant, since they “will not always be realistic or effective in swiftly identifying and removing alien enemies.”
“Given the dynamic nature of enforcement operations, officers in the field are authorized to apprehend aliens upon a reasonable belief that the alien meets all four requirements to be validated as an alien enemy,” it read.
It added: “This authority includes entering an alien enemy’s residence to make an [Aliens Enemies Act] apprehension where circumstances render it impracticable to first obtain a signed notice and warrant of apprehension and removal.”
Attached to the memo was also a copy of the Alien Enemy Validation Guide, which provides a point system for determining whether or not a person is part of the Venezuelan gang and subject to removal.
The next day, the administration deported more than 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, CECOT, including the wrongfully deported Maryland dad Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
This was in accordance with President Donald Trump’s March 15 announcement that he would be invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, an obscure wartime law meant to arrest and deport “alien enemies” from an enemy nation during an invasion or war.
The president’s proclamation read: “I proclaim that all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of TdA, are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.”
“I further find and declare that all such members of TdA are a danger to the public peace or safety of the United States,” he added.
But since then, the administration has been apprehending and deporting immigrants who are not Venezuelan and have no criminal record to El Salvador’s mega-prison.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups sued the administration earlier this month in an attempt to block any more deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.
The ACLU’s lead counsel in these cases, Lee Gelernt, told USA Today that the Justice Department has been violating the Fourth Amendment, which protects individuals from unreasonable search and seizures by the government.
“The administration’s unprecedented use of a wartime authority during peacetime was bad enough,” he said. “Now we find out the Justice Department was authorizing officers to ignore the most bedrock principle of the Fourth Amendment by authorizing officers to enter homes without a judicial warrant.”
The Alien Enemies Act can only be invoked when there is a “declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government” or an “invasion or predatory incursion … perpetrated, attempted, or threatened” against the country by a foreign nation.
Many have argued that Trump’s crackdown on immigration, regarding members of the Tren de Aragua gang, does not meet the act’s requirements of “war,” “invasion,” or “predatory incursion.”
USA Today obtained the memo from the nonprofit Property of the People, which pursues “governmental transparency.”
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