Right-wing media figures are feigning outrage that Democrats have called for federal deportation officers to comply with the Fourth Amendment before carrying out searches of private property, a requirement that even Trump administration border czar Tom Homan has acknowledged, and inaccurately suggesting it will “make it impossible for ICE to do their job.”

Media Matters recently resurfaced a Fox News interview from August 2025 during which Homan said, “We need a judicial warrant for a search.” That assessment is in line with longstanding federal immigration protocol and complies with the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable search and seizure. 

As The Associated Press reported in January, however, an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo written last year purportedly authorized agents to enter private property without obtaining a judge’s signature. Instead, agents would rely on an administrative warrant, which is signed by an ICE officer, not a judge. Six former general counsels or acting general counsels for the Department of Homeland Security recently objected to the memo’s legal rationale, arguing in a New York Times op-ed that the directive violated the Fourth Amendment.   

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee and in congressional leadership have demanded that the Department of Homeland Security and ICE rescind the memo and obtain judicial warrants before entering private property to carry out immigration enforcement.

Right-wing media have responded by attempting to muddy the waters and claim, incorrectly, that congressional Democrats want federal agents to obtain a judicial warrant — rather than an administrative warrant — for every ICE or Border Patrol arrest. The most generous reading of these claims perhaps relies on an interpretation of imprecise language from some Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who said Democrats want “arrest warrants and an end to racial profiling.” The list of leadership’s demands also says ICE must “end indiscriminate arrests and improve warrant procedures and standards.”

Even granting the possibly muddled messaging from Democrats, the right-wing media response has been profoundly misleading. MAGA pundits are stoking fear about immigrant communities and threatening what is meant to be a basic constitutional protection against government overreach. Here are some of the most egregious examples.

• The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro acknowledged that “ICE does need a judicial warrant to enter homes,” but said elsewhere that if Democrats are saying “only judicial warrants can be used by ICE, that means the end of immigration enforcement in the United States, and they know it.” He added of that and other Democrat demands: “So, basically, hamstring federal law. Make sure that illegal immigration can never be stopped. That’s the Democrat goal.” [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 1/28/26, 2/4/26] 
• Fox News host Jesse Watters responded to Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s criticism of the ICE memo by asking: “We have to get a warrant from a judge every time we arrest an illegal?” Watters added: “If you needed a warrant for every time you arrested a migrant, they could just stay inside their apartment all day and collect welfare.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 1/27/26]
• Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said that “to get a judicial warrant to … get 9 million people is the most impractical thing I have ever seen.” Co-host Ainsley Earhart added: “Impractical legal hurdle there.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 2/2/26]
• MAGA legal activist and Article III Project founder Mike Davis said, “We have never required judicial warrants to arrest illegal aliens and deport them. This would make it impossible for ICE to do their jobs. It's a red line, it’s unacceptable, it’s a hell no.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 2/2/26]
• Davis made a similar argument on Fox’s The Ingraham Angle, claiming, “We have used immigration warrants for decades. You don't need a judicial warrant to go round up illegal aliens and get them out of our country.” Host Laura Ingraham had asked: “This idea that you can't use an administrative warrant. Suddenly the Democrats don't like administrative warrants? When did that start?” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 2/2/26]
• On Rumble, Donald Trump Jr. said Democrats “want a long, drawn-out process for judicial warrants before arresting criminals, illegal alien criminals.” Trump Jr. added: “Basically, they want to make it impossible for ICE to do its job.” [Rumble, Triggered, 2/2/26] 
• Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said on his War Room podcast that Democrats “want a federal warrant to remove any — they want a signed judicial warrant to remove anybody from the United States.” [Real America’s Voice, War Room, 2/3/26] 

As border czar Tom Homan said last August, federal agents need a judicial warrant to conduct a search on private property. Right-wing media figures can try to obscure that all they want, but it doesn’t change the underlying facts.