Ryan Schwank & Anonymous

---

Whistleblower Aid represents two whistleblowers, one public and the other anonymous, who independently came forward from different federal offices to blow the whistle on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) enacting a policy change to authorize forcible home entry without consent in violation of the Fourth Amendment. This case has had immediate impact in supporting the Senate demands for DHS/ICE reform as a requirement before reaching agreement over DHS/ICE funding. The demand for requiring judicial warrants for home entry (Number 1 of 10 demands) and for requiring improved training of agents (Number 6 of 10 demands) was made public on February 6, 2026.

The whistleblower disclosure, submitted to the U.S. Senate, focuses on a secret memo issued by Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons on May 12, 2025. The secretive handling of this policy change via hidden memo demonstrates that the Administration’s policies are eroding Constitutional protections. The policy laid out in the memo is a direct violation of well-established Fourth Amendment case law ensuring privacy and security in a person’s home—and in direct conflict with DHS’s written policies and training materials for ICE agents.

Given recent news reports of ICE officers acting with impunity to forcibly break into homes without a judicial warrant—or in some cases without any warrant—the case is timely as it pertains to what is being actively taught to new ICE trainees. The message being received by recruits—who lack law enforcement experience and Constitutional training while being directed to engage with the public—is that they may act with impunity.

Massive news coverage and congressional and public reactions to our case are building the momentum for a reckoning, even as more reports of harm come to light. There is also a substantial legal impact: a recent Minnesota federal court ruling held that ICE violated the Fourth Amendment when it forcibly entered a home to arrest someone subject to a final order of removal “without his consent and without a judicial warrant.”

Senator Richard Blumenthal expressed deep appreciation for the courage of our clients and said: 

“Every American should be terrified by this secret ICE policy authorizing its agents to kick down your door and storm into your home…Government agents have no right to ransack your bedroom or terrorize your kids on a whim or personal desire.”

The Senator and Congressman Robert Garcia co-hosted a Spotlight Forum/Shadow Hearing, featuring our client Ryan Schwank as the star witness alongside Minneapolis victims of the new ICE policy and experts on the constitutional violations pushed by the leadership of DHS. We are also partnering with investigative, research, civil rights, and immigrant rights organizations to track and defend against the Administration’s use of secretive memos authorizing unconstitutional policies and actions bringing real harm every day. As always, we are supporting state attorneys general as they sue for injunctive relief, to address the harm DHS and ICE are causing to their residents and to protect public safety, education, housing, free association, and employment.

Ryan’s case received extraordinary attention including a profile in This American Life, and coverage in top-tier media such as The New York Times, MS NOW, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Two federal lawsuits relying on the evidence our client brought forward include one by the Lawyers for Civil Rights filed on behalf of the Greater Boston Latino Network (GBLN) and Brazilian Worker Center (BWC), followed by a lawsuit filed by a coalition of legal groups including Protect Democracy, the ACLU, the ACLU of Minnesota, the ACLU of D.C., and Dorsey & Whitney against DHS, ICE, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center on behalf of immigrants and U.S. citizens who have been impacted by DHS’s warrantless home entry policy.