ICE claims agents can enter private homes using their own paperwork — without asking a judge first. The Fourth Amendment was written for moments like this.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is pushing a new home-entry rule, one Americans might have thought they left behind in the old world. A whistleblower recently exposed an internal memo from ICE’s acting director, claiming that once an immigration judge — an employee of the executive branch — signs a final order of removal for someone, ICE agents may use that order (and their own administrative paperwork) to legally enter private homes to effect an arrest — all without ever asking an independent judge for a warrant.

The Fourth Amendment was written for this exact moment. One of the major causes of the American Revolution was the practice of British officers using similar executive-authorized papers to enter colonists’ private homes. When the Framers enacted the Bill of Rights, they drew a bright line at the front door of the home — and said government may not sign its own paperwork to enter. In a free society, you can shut your door, and the state cannot force it open on its own say-so.

Crucially, this holds true no matter why the state wants to come in. The Supreme Court has never blessed letting an agency-issued immigration form substitute for an independent judge’s warrant to enter an occupied home. That is why the most important word in this debate is also the most misleading one: “warrant.”

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