Former DHS counsel Steve Bunnell urges judicial warrants for home entries, rejects 'deep state' label

Steve Bunnell, who served as general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2017, told a congressional committee that the department should stop conducting forcible entries into private homes without a judicial warrant.

"The judicial warrant is a requirement of the Fourth Amendment and it applies to ICE just like it applies to every other federal, state, and local law enforcement agency," Bunnell said, urging the department to respect constitutional limits on searches and seizures.

Bunnell said he was one of six former DHS general counsels who co‑authored a New York Times op‑ed opposing a new ICE policy that relies on administrative arrest warrants to enter residences for civil immigration violations. He told the committee the former counsels come from multiple administrations and agreed that the Fourth Amendment requires a judicial warrant for forced home entry.

He also criticized recent rhetoric by DHS leadership that described career DHS lawyers as "deep state operatives," calling that characterization "a cheap shot and it's wrong." He warned such attacks carry consequences for legal advice within the agency: "If you give your best professional advice and urge the department to respect the law, you will be attacked for doing your job."

Citing Supreme Court precedent, Bunnell emphasized that physical entry into a home without a judicial warrant is "presumptively unreasonable" and that the Fourth Amendment protects "the people," a formulation he said extends constitutional protections to noncitizens present in the United States.

Bunnell disputed ICE's stated legal rationale that the agency's detention authority combined with a final removal order satisfies the Fourth Amendment. He argued immigration judges are members of the executive branch who are subject to the attorney general and the president and therefore are not the "neutral and detached" magistrates required to authorize warrantless home entries; he added that immigration judges lack statutory authority to issue arrest or search warrants.

Bunnell closed by offering to "flesh out these points and others during my testimony" and again urged DHS to "adhere to the Constitution and end the un‑American practice of conducting forcible entries into homes without judicial warrants."