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DHS' own regulations cover these restrictions, and ICE's Detention and Deportation Officer's Field Manual states:
"Warrants of Deportation and Removal are administrative rather than criminal, and do not grant the authority to breach doors. Thus informed consent must be obtained from the occupant of the residence prior to entering."
Nonetheless, "empirical data drawn from ICE's own arrest records (obtained by Freedom of Information Act lawsuits) strongly suggest a significant and disturbing pattern of (agency) misconduct during home raids" during which over 1000 people were seized. The evidence is alarming and shows "an unacceptable level of illegal entries" in clear violation of the law. In addition, most arrest records indicate "no basis for the initial seizure" and a disturbing racial profiling pattern against Latinos.
In recent years, defense lawyers increasingly have used suppression motions to prevent illegally obtained evidence being used. Earlier, they were rare in immigration courts, given the Supreme Court's decision in INS v. Lopez-Mendoza (July 5, 1984) that deportation proceedings are:
"civil action(s) to determine a person's eligibility to remain in this country....not to punish past transgressions. (As such) various protections (including suppression motions don't generally) apply....in a deportation hearing."
In immigration courts, they're not standard procedures. Since 2006, however, they're more often used because the High Court also "reasoned that the exclusionary rule may (apply) in immigration proceedings for egregious and widespread Fourth Amendment violations" even though prevailing in immigration cases remains challenging, expensive, and time-consuming.
Political and Local Law Enforcement Concerns
ICE often requests operational help from local police who complain that Fourth Amendment violations undermine their central crime suppression mission. Political leaders voice similar concerns. New York state Senator Kirstin Gillibrand said she was "appalled by some of the practices I have heard about," and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano said "We won't stand for the violation of constitutional rights and racial profiling" in reacting to city raids.
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