A U.S. court judge has ruled immigration enforcement officers must stop using a door-knocking tactic to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants.
Advocates for immigrants claim Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, officers use a so-called ‘Knock and Talk’ tactic to bait undocumented immigrants into allowing them inside their homes.
Once they enter, advocates say, ICE will sometimes arrest and detain people without a valid warrant. They’ve also accused ICE agents of lying about who they are.
Lizbeth Castillejos Abeln is with the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, one of the plaintiffs who sued ICE over the practice. She says ICE’s tactics harm immigrants.
"It just disrupts entire families and neighborhoods," Abeln says. "And that's why it was important for us to bring this forth."
In his ruling, Judge Otis Wright argues that the ‘Knock and Talk’ practice violates the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable search and seizure.
An ICE spokesperson declined to comment.
