In an August 13, 2025, interview on Fox News, Trump administration border czar — and former Fox contributor — Tom Homan acknowledged that federal agents must obtain a warrant signed by a judge before conducting a search on private property.

Homan’s comment, that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “need a judicial warrant for a search,” would have seemed unremarkable at the time.

Recent reporting from The Associated Press, however, reveals that Homan’s comment directly contradicted an internal memo signed in May 2025 by acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, which purportedly authorized federal agents to enter homes without a judicial warrant. The AP, which first reported the existence of the memo, characterized its direction as “a sharp reversal of longstanding guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches."

According to the memo, instead of getting a judge’s signature, deportation officers may rely on an administrative warrant, which, in the words of Georgetown Law professor Steve Vladeck, is a “piece of paper signed by an ICE officer.” Besides Vladeck, in a recent New York Times op-ed six former general counsels or acting general counsels for the Department of Homeland Security voiced objections to the ICE memo on the grounds that it violates Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

In the interview, Fox anchor Martha MacCallum asked Homan to respond to then-New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s assertion that federal agents couldn’t enter city schools, hospitals, or homes without a judicial warrant.

“He needs to do his research — ICE don’t need a judicial warrant to make an arrest," Homan said. “Now, we need a judicial warrant for a search, but he needs to do his homework that ICE don’t do operations at schools, churches, or hospitals."

(In fact, ICE carried out a raid at a high school in Minneapolis the same day an agent shot and killed Renee Good; deportation agents recently arrested a congregant on church grounds in Los Angeles; and ICE agents have carried out operations in hospitals as well.)

Homan is the new face of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation in Minnesota, replacing Border Patrol commander at large Greg Bovino. Fox largely praised the personnel switch and attempted to spin what appears to be a superficial rebranding effort as a substantial policy shift. Fox News and Homan have worked in lockstep for months to promote a wildly inflated and misleading statistic about the supposed criminal histories of people in ICE custody, further undermining the network’s narrative that he’s a restrained, trustworthy professional.

Some at Fox are attempting to muddy the waters by obfuscating the difference between an arrest — which can be authorized by an administrative warrant — and a search, which requires a judge’s signature.

“To get a judicial warrant in order to pursue up to nine million illegal immigrants — are you crazy?" asked Fox & Friends' Brian Kilmeade. “That’s not the way it’s ever worked for Obama on down.”

Given Homan’s new role as the head of Trump’s deportation machine, his acknowledgement of the Fourth Amendment could prove crucial. In August 2025 he knew that for ICE agents to conduct a search of private property they needed a judge’s signature. Someone at Fox should ask him what he believes now.