You don’t need to be a liberal to oppose Trump’s ICE |
Federal law enforcement agents outside a private residence in St. Paul, Minnesota, US, on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026.
America’s immigration debate has often centered on the morality of mass deportation. Progressives have argued that exiling law-abiding families is inherently wrong — no matter their immigration status. Conservatives have insisted that vigorous internal enforcement is necessary for deterring chaotic inflows of migrants, upholding America’s laws, and preserving our nation’s culture.
This is an important dispute. And yet, as masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents run amok in Minneapolis, it also feels increasingly beside the point.
President Donald Trump’s approach to immigration enforcement doesn’t only threaten the welfare of the undocumented but also the basic rights of American citizens. The question posed by the president’s agenda is not merely whether non-criminal immigrants should be deported, but whether the Constitution should be shredded in service of that aim.
Voters are starting to recognize this reality. In a recent New York Times/Siena poll, Americans approved of Trump’s deportations of people living in the country illegally by a 50 percent to 47 percent margin. Yet, over 60 percent nevertheless disapproved of the way that ICE was handling its job, saying that the agency had “gone too far” in its tactics.
It is important for Americans to understand that they don’t need to accept the left’s moral assumptions to reject the president’s immigration regime. They simply need to value their own freedom.
Below, I detail six ways that the president’s immigration policies are eroding all Americans’ liberty.
Key takeaways
• ICE is forcibly entering Americans’ homes without warrant.
• The Trump administration is using immigration enforcement to punish speech it doesn’t like.
• The White House is shielding ICE officers from accountability.
• All this threatens US citizens, not just undocumented immigrants.
1) ICE is nullifying the 4th Amendment.
The 4th Amendment bars government agents from forcing their way into a US resident’s home without a warrant. This protection from unreasonable search and seizure is among Americans’ most basic civil liberties — and ICE has decided to ignore it.
In an internal memo leaked this week, the agency informed its deportation officers that they can forcibly enter the homes of suspected undocumented immigrants without obtaining a warrant from any judge. ICE decried that its agents could break into anyone’s house, so long as they had an administrative warrant, a type of warrant that ICE itself can issue at will.
This is a blatant subversion of constitutional government — and one that harms undocumented immigrants and US citizens alike. If ICE doesn’t need to establish probable cause before storming into a residence, then it will inevitably march into some American citizens’ homes.
Indeed, last Sunday, in St. Paul, Minnesota, ICE agents broke down the door of a house, put a gun to the head of a US citizen, and dragged him out of his home in just his underwear — all without presenting any judicial warrant.
2) The government is shielding ICE officers from accountability.
A core democratic freedom is protection from abuse by armed agents of the state. The Trump administration has undermined such liberty by insulating DHS officers from legal accountability.
It has done this in ways both large and small.
Most conspicuously, when ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot Renee Nicole Good three times on video — twice while standing safely to the left of her vehicle — the president immediately rallied to Ross’s defense. And the Department of Justice swiftly declined to investigate the shooting, opting instead to launch a probe against Good’s widow.
This conduct would be alarming even if Good’s killing were legally justified. By embracing Ross’s........