Democrats’ demand for the Department of Homeland Security to "improve warrant procedures and standards" when arresting illegal immigrants could grind ICE's enforcement and removal operations to a near halt, immigration experts told the Washington Free Beacon.
The policy would restrict ICE’s ability to rely on administrative warrants, which are authorized under the Immigration and Nationality Act and issued by senior agency officials after determining probable cause. They allow federal authorities to arrest immigrants illegally residing in the country—a civil violation—and carry out enforcement actions, including deportations. By contrast, judicial warrants require a judge’s signature and are typically only issued if an illegal immigrant has committed a separate federal criminal offense.
The heightened legal standard could severely handcuff ICE and other immigration authorities, according to Heritage Foundation Border Security and Immigration Center director Lora Ries. Factor in the longer review process that judicial warrants demand, a backlog in immigration courts that’s reached record highs in recent years, and the likelihood that "activist judges" seeking to "thwart and delay ICE" would deny a request, and the agency’s enforcement capacity could drop by 90 percent, Ries said.
"The Democrats don't want ICE to be able to do their job," Ries told the Free Beacon. "They have called to defund ICE, abolish ICE, and so this is just another attempt to get at that end and pretty much bring ICE enforcement and removal to a halt."
Immigration authorities were on average arresting roughly 1,000 illegal immigrants each day at the end of 2025. Obtaining judicial warrants to make arrests "would slow things down to almost a crawl," Heritage Foundation Border Security and Immigration Center senior research fellow Simon Hankinson said.
Warrant reform was the top item in a list of demands Democratic leaders issued last week to "rein in ICE" amid a DHS funding battle. The push followed weeks of unrest in Minnesota following the fatal shootings of two anti-ICE agitators during immigration enforcement operations. Democrats have increasingly embraced calls to abolish ICE in the wake of the shootings.
The list from Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) calls on ICE to "end indiscriminate arrests and improve warrant procedures and standards." It's unclear exactly when Schumer and Jeffries want ICE agents to obtain a judicial warrant to make an arrest—a Democratic aide, for example, told the New York Times that the language was "intentionally broadly worded" and could bar federal agents from detaining illegal immigrants in their cars. Last week, Schumer said congressional Democrats are calling for "arrest warrants and an end to racial profiling" more broadly. During a similar DHS funding fight last month, Democrats were pushing for "requiring judicial warrants for immigration arrests," Politico reported.
Republican leaders have argued that the vague language would lead to "unworkable" warrant requirements. Democrats have yet to release a draft of their DHS funding bill.
The Democratic push for warrant reform began following the leak of an ICE memo authorizing agents to enter private residences using administrative warrants rather than a judicial one. The use of an administrative warrant to enter a private residence is legal, Center for Immigration Studies resident fellow in law and policy Andrew Arthur said, if a judge has ordered the targeted illegal immigrant's deportation. Arthur argued that more robust warrant requirements would hamper border enforcement.
"What happens at the border when somebody crosses illegally? Border patrol makes a warrantless arrest because they don't know who is coming and they don't know who you are until they talk to you till after you're arrested and processed," he said. "If you say you need a warrant for every immigration arrest, that means I need a warrant for everybody that comes illegally over the border, which is impossible."
Democrats are also demanding that ICE agents be prohibited from wearing masks or other face coverings. Arthur said that would create a serious safety concern, considering immigration authorities and facilities have already faced targeted attacks.
"If the Left weren't assaulting, threatening, doxxing agents, they wouldn't be wearing masks," Arthur told the Free Beacon. He said advances in technology have also made it easier than ever to identify and target officials.
Non-essential DHS functions will shut down Saturday if a funding deal isn’t reached. ICE is likely to be minimally affected, as President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act provides funding for the agency through 2029.
Democrats' proposed change to "warrant procedures" is a "complete nonstarter for the White House" and many congressional Republicans, a source close to the administration told Politico. Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, rejected a DHS funding counterproposal from the White House on Monday.
