One of the Trump administration's most controversial legal memos may actually be a complete ruse, according to one legal analyst.
Last year, the Trump Department of Homeland Security allegedly issued a memo telling Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that they have the legal authority to enter civilian homes without a judicial warrant. The move sent shockwaves through the legal community, with many arguing that it was a blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment's privacy protections.
Allison Gill, a legal analyst, wrote in her Substack newsletter that she immediately filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the memo when the story first appeared. What that request returned has raised more questions than it answered.
"Today, we got a response from the Department of Homeland Security, and it turns out there’s no Office of General Counsel memo underpinning the Todd Lyons memo," Gill noted. "It was an email written by Adam Loiacono, the Deputy Principal Legal Advisor for Enforcement and Litigation in the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor at ICE."
"Adam Loiacono is the same lawyer [who] wrote the opinion (via email) legally justifying the questioning of unaccompanied minors at HHS facilities without Miranda warnings," she added.
"I’m not sure if he writes these as emails to avoid having to release them, but that shouldn’t matter, because any policy adopted as working law waives the privilege they claim justifies the redactions you’ll see below," Gill wrote, referring to the responsive documents from DHS that she shared in her newsletter.
