The Department of Homeland Security is reportedly rolling back some of the leeway the Trump administration had given federal immigration authorities in an effort to make arresting illegal immigrants easier.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations arm has notified offices nationwide not to enter homes when attempting to make an immigration arrest unless officers have a judicial warrant, according to a new report by NBC News.
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The move comes following months of ICE and other federal personnel going into the residences of individuals believed to be illegally present in the country who already had a judge’s signed order of removal, as law enforcement carries out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation.
ICE also appears to be cutting down its presence in immigration courts, where, under Trump, officers have been allowed to stake out and apprehend people as they showed up for their day in immigration court.
NBC found that immigration arrests at courthouses were down significantly, according to two immigration attorneys and a senior DHS official.
A day after taking office in January 2025, Trump had authorized ICE to make arrests in and around courthouses, going against the Biden-era norm of avoiding immigration enforcement by courts, schools, places of worship, or hospitals.
This past February, ICE was told to no longer arrest a suspected illegal immigrant at or around a courthouse unless the individual is being targeted for deportation.
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The changes come less than a month after former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was replaced by Markwayne Mullin.
Under Trump, ICE had arrested nearly 457,000 people between the start of his second term and early March this year.
