No DHS Funding Without Warrants, Due Process, and Accountability

Department of Homeland Security funding expires Friday. At the same time, administration officials have reportedly declared that requiring ICE to obtain judicial warrants before entering private homes is a “non-starter.” The Fourth Amendment is not optional. It requires that warrants issue only upon probable cause, supported by oath, and particularly describing the place to be searched. That protection arose directly from colonial outrage over general warrants and unbounded searches. It is a foundational limit on executive power. If compliance with the Fourth Amendment is a “non-starter,” then unconditional funding must be as well. This is not theoretical. In Idaho, a recent federal raid resulted in the detention of more than 100 undocumented immigrants and the temporary detention of hundreds of U.S. citizens and lawful residents. Litigation is ongoing. Photographic evidence contradicted initial official denials about how minors were restrained. These are precisely the kinds of operations that demand strict constitutional guardrails. At the same time, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in Buenrostro-Mendez v. Bondi that certain immigrants may be detained without any opportunity for a bond hearing in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Those states contain a significant portion of the nation’s ICE detention facilities. While appellate review may follow, the decision is binding for now. Combined with billions already appropriated for detention expansion through 2029, this creates the real possibility of prolonged civil detention without individualized judicial oversight. Congress cannot finance a regime of warrantless home entries and indefinite detention. Any DHS funding bill must: 1. Require judicial warrants based on probable cause before ICE enters a private residence. 2. Guarantee prompt bond hearings or individualized custody review. 3. Mandate documented compliance with all federal court orders. 4. Require public reporting of detentions involving U.S. citizens or lawful residents. 5. Establish clear identification standards to prevent masked, unaccountable enforcement actions except in narrowly defined and justified circumstances. 6. Guarantee independent inspection access to all detention facilities, including privately operated centers. Further, Congress must include explicit clawback authority through 2029 allowing appropriated funds to be rescinded if DHS violates constitutional protections, ignores judicial directives, or expands detention capacity without statutory safeguards. Another clean continuing resolution would entrench the status quo. That is not compromise; it is abdication of Congress’s constitutional duty. The power of the purse exists precisely to prevent executive overreach. Security requires legitimacy. Enforcement requires due process. Funding without conditions would signal that constitutional compliance is negotiable. It is not. Stand firm. Condition funding. Include clawback authority. Do not finance practices that treat the Bill of Rights as optional.