Boston lawsuit aims to stop 'warrantless home invasions' by ICE

A pair of Boston-area immigration groups have sued ICE over a policy that authorizes federal agents to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judicial warrant, saying the practice undermines the Fourth Amendment's protections against illegal searches and seizures.

The case filed Friday in federal court in Boston targets a memo reportedly authored by ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons. Dated May 2025, the policy authorizes ICE officers to “arrest and detain aliens subject to a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge, the Board of Immigration Appeals, or a U.S. District Court judge or magistrate judge in their place of residence.”

The nonprofits Greater Boston Latino Network and the Brazilian Worker Center, which both work to inform immigrants of the rights that protect them in their homes, filed the suit.

The groups claim they’ve had to divert resources from their core activities, “including by counseling and advising members concerning the unprecedented warrantless home invasions authorized by the Lyons Memo, conducting revised know-your-rights trainings to account for this new threat, and responding to community fears of home invasions by ICE.”

ICE and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.

The suit cites the arrest of a Liberian man in Minneapolis on Jan. 11. Less than a week later, a federal judge in Minnesota ruled that agents violated the Fourth Amendment when they forcibly entered the man’s home without his consent and without a judicial warrant. The man was ordered released, though the judge did not rule on the broader constitutionality of the Lyons memo.

It’s unclear whether ICE has carried out warrantless home arrests in Massachusetts, said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, which is representing the plaintiffs in the suit. But with Temporary Protected Status for Haitians slated to end on Feb. 3, he said thousands of people could be affected by the policy.

“Their names and addresses are known to immigration officials, and this policy is going to be used against them just like it's being used in other places across the country, because ICE officers are being trained to violate the law,” he said.

Espinoza-Madrigal said the Lyons memo undermines a key element of "know your rights" trainings offered by legal advocacy groups, which advise people to request a judicial warrant if ICE appears at their home.

"The trainings also guide people very carefully through how to read a warrant, how to look for the date, the location where the warrant can be executed, the signature of the judge, and that it comes in letterhead from a state or federal court," he said. The Lyons memo "completely throws these trainings into disarray."

The memo could also undermine a "know your rights" guide issued last May by Attorney General Andrea Campbell. The guidance states that under most circumstances, ICE agents cannot legally enter private spaces — including homes and non-public areas of a workplace — without a judicial warrant, or without permission.

Gov. Maura Healey on Thursday announced a bill that would ban warrantless civil ICE arrests in courthouses, as well as schools, houses of worship and hospitals. Healey also issued an executive order that immediately bars agents from staging actions on most state property.