U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have become crueler, more aggressive, and more deceptive in Michigan, increasingly making arrests that draw less public attention and leave families blindsided, immigration attorneys say.
Herman Dhade, the president of the Detroit Immigration Law Firm in West Bloomfield, says ICE is detaining immigrants in more discreet ways to avoid detection from the public. For example, arrests are happening after routine traffic stops and during marriage-based green card interviews.
Dhade says his office has been contacted by couples who attended what they believed would be a standard marriage-based green card interview, only for the immigrant spouse to be detained during or immediately after the appointment.
“I got a call a few weeks ago,” Dhade tells Metro Times, describing a case in which a husband was detained “right in front of his wife’s eyes.”
“Could you imagine being a newlywed and you’re a U.S. citizen or green card holder and you fall in love and you get married, and you’re so excited, and then there is literally a trap set up?” Dhade says. “No other people in the waiting room ever see the arrest. That’s the covert way they’re making arrests.”
Dhade says another pattern he’s seeing involves routine traffic stops. Someone is pulled over for a minor issue, and during the stop local police contact ICE.
“People are being pulled over during routine traffic stops and then the officer calls ICE,” he says. “They quietly get arrested.”
Dhade says the arrests are carried out in a way that limits public visibility. Inside busy immigration buildings, he says, agents use back entrances and move quickly so others in the waiting room do not see what happened.
“That’s the covert way of making arrests,” he says.
Dhade says he has also seen arresting officers who are not visibly identifiable as ICE.
“The ones making the arrests often aren’t wearing ICE clothes,” he says. “They are doing it covertly to not draw media attention.”
He believes that secrecy is the point.
“Just because they aren’t visible, they are being very clever about it,” he says
In the first 10 months of 2025, ICE arrested more than 2,300 immigrants in Michigan, according to the Deportation Data Project, which obtains arrest data through Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits. That figure is nearly triple the number of arrests made in all of 2024, when Joe Biden was president.
Immigration activists are now worried about a dangerous and unconstitutional shift in ICE’s approach to entering homes. An internal ICE memo recently obtained by the Associated Press says immigration officers may use force to enter a residence to arrest without a judge’s warrant, a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, immigration activists and lawyers say.
The memo, dated May 12, 2025, and signed by Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, says DHS lawyers determined the U.S. Constitution and immigration laws do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants to enter the home of a suspected undocumented immigrant.
Last year, immigrant advocates, legal aid groups, and some public officials, including Democratic lawmakers, urged immigrants not to open the door or let ICE in without a warrant signed by a judge. The AP reported the new directive directly undercuts that advice at a time when arrests are accelerating.
Dhade says the Fourth Amendment requires an independent federal judge to authorize entry into a home, and that ICE is exploiting confusion over paperwork that looks official but is not the same as a federal court warrant.
“You’re protected by the Fourth Amendment. You need a judicial warrant for that from an actual judge,” he says.
Dhade says that ICE often presents an administrative immigration document that may be signed within the immigration system, not a federal court.
“Immigrants aren’t going to know this subtlety, and ICE are taking advantage of that,” he says. “It’s very deceptive.”
He says a warrant signed by a U.S. district judge or U.S. magistrate judge is what matters for home entry.
“If it’s signed by a field officer or immigration officer, it will look official, but that’s an ICE administrative warrant,” Dhade says. “That doesn’t allow them to kick open a door.”
The AP reported it witnessed ICE officers in Minneapolis battering down the door of a home while holding only an administrative warrant.
Dhade says the old, widely shared guidance, such as not answering the door, does not fully reflect what immigrants may be facing if agents claim they can enter with administrative paperwork and are prepared to use force.
His advice, he says, starts with making the legal position clear without escalating the situation.
“You can say you don’t consent,” he says.
He adds that if officers force entry anyway, people should prioritize safety and immediately try to reach a lawyer.
“If they are kicking the door down, you don’t want to get injured either,” Dhade says. “Try to get in contact with a lawyer and then take it from there.”
Dhade says the encounters can be intentionally intimidating.
“These guys are aggressive and commanding,” he says. “They are going to scare the daylight out of who they are raiding. That’s a tactic.”
He says the tactics feel cruel, not only because of the fear involved, but because the people being detained often have no criminal record, including those with work permits or U.S.-citizen spouses. In fact, nearly three-quarters of the immigrants arrested by ICE in Michigan in the first 10 months of 2025 did not have criminal convictions.
“They’re arresting people who are as clean as a whistle,” Dhade says.
He describes clients with work permits who are waiting for immigration interviews, and he questions why people trying to follow legal channels are being locked up.
“This is wasting taxpayer money too,” he says. “Why are you locking people up who are going through legal channels and costing taxpayers more money?”
He also describes a client he says was permitted by an immigration judge to remain because returning to his home country would be too dangerous, yet still ended up under intense ICE supervision.
“He has no criminal record, has two kids, is a hardworking father, and now has to report to ICE weekly,” Dhade says, warning that families often face separation. “These are two kids who could be without a father.”
Since a judge determined the man’s country of origin is too dangerous, “they’re trying to find a random country to import him,” Dhade says.
He adds, “They will tell you they are keeping America safe, but they are ripping families apart.”
Lawmakers and immigration activists warned in April that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is detaining undocumented immigrants who take a wrong turn near the Ambassador Bridge in Southwest Detroit, a common route to the Canadian border.
As ICE expands arrests and asserts broader authority to enter homes, Dhade says Michigan families should treat enforcement risk like any other emergency. They should plan ahead, keep key documents accessible, and make sure loved ones know who to call.
“People should take this seriously,” he says.
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