ICE Tells Officers to Curtail Court Arrests, Stop Entering Homes Without Warrants
By Julia Ainsley and Laura Strickler
The Trump administration has curbed some of its most aggressive immigration enforcement policies, officials say.
WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security is quietly rolling back some of its controversial immigration enforcement policies, according to two senior DHS officials and two immigration attorneys who have seen the changes firsthand.
President Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown, including his administration’s large-scale operations in American cities, has culminated in public clashes with federal agents whose harsh tactics have fallen increasingly under question.
Now, the Trump administration is apparently reconsidering how federal immigration agents will conduct their enforcement actions moving forward.
NBC News reports that the Department of Homeland Security has begun to roll back some of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s most controversial policies with new directives going out to field offices across the country. Sources tell the outlet that among the tactics reportedly being pared down are officers entering a home without a judicial warrant — which many legal advocates have argued violates the Constitution — and conducting arrests during ongoing immigration court proceedings, which became a common tactic during Trump’s first year in office.
In New York City, several high-profile arrests took place at 26 Federal Plaza, where masked federal agents handcuffed undocumented immigrants following their appearance at legally mandated hearings. Per NBC, agents will now only make arrests in federal immigration court if a subject is currently considered a target for deportation, following a policy change that went into effect in February.
These reported shifts come as DHS has undergone significant changes on the leadership level. Last month, Trump removed Secretary Kristi Noem from her role leading the agency after several high-profile scandals and questions about her handling of the department amid the immigration push. Noem was in charge as the administration launched “Operation Metro Surge,” an extensive immigration enforcement action that flooded the Twin Cities with federal agents to conduct mass deportations. The monthslong operation resulted in significant unrest in the region and the killings of two Minneapolis residents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by federal officers. Noem was succeeded by Markwayne Mullin, a Republican Oklahoma congressman and staunch Trump ally, on a largely party-line vote.
The administration also parted ways with Greg Bovino, the then-commander-at-large of the U.S. Border Patrol who initially led Operation Metro Surge and quickly became one of the public faces of Trump’s immigration crackdown. He was often seen personally patrolling the streets of Minneapolis and, in one instance, hurling a smoke canister at protesters, per The Wall Street Journal.
