Lawyers with the Trump administration have determined that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents can enter homes without a warrant under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, reports The New York Times.
President Donald Trump last Saturday invoked the sweeping wartime authority for the first time since World War II, though a federal judge hours later halted deportations under the order.
The act allows noncitizens to be deported without being given the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal judge.
“All such alien enemies, wherever found within any territory subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, are subject to summary apprehension,” the proclamation said.
Senior lawyers at the Justice Department say that language also means the U.S. government doesn’t need a warrant to enter a home or premises to search for anyone believed to be a member of the Tren de Aragua gang, reported the Times.
Christopher Slobogin, a law professor at Vanderbilt University, told the Times the language of the act, particularly its reference to a “warrant of a president,” gave the government “at least a foot in the door with respect to arguing that the president can order this on his own authority.”
Still, “it undermines fundamental protections that are recognized in the Fourth Amendment, and in the due process clause,” he added.
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