Senior Judge Beryl Howell Holds ICE's New Warrantless Arrest Guidance Fails to Comply With Her December Court Order — Bans Reliance on Memo

Senior U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell of the District of Columbia held on May 8, 2026 that an ICE memo issued after her December 2025 court order restricting warrantless civil immigration arrests in Washington, D.C. 'does not properly instruct law enforcement officers to comply' with her ruling and prohibited agents from relying on the memo. Judge Howell originally ordered the federal government in December 2025 not to arrest anyone in Washington D.C. for civil immigration offenses without an administrative warrant unless agents determined, following an individual assessment, that the specific person was likely to flee before a warrant could be obtained. ICE subsequently issued a new internal guidance memo that Judge Howell found contains a 'flawed' and legally deficient definition of 'escape risk': the memo instructed officers to evaluate only whether the individual is 'unlikely to remain at the scene of the encounter' — but entirely omitted the requirement to consider whether the person could be located later at their home, workplace, or other known location, making a warrantless arrest unnecessary. The memo also 'simply ignores' the separate requirement to consider the extent of the person's ties to the community when assessing flight risk. Citing records of 33 warrantless arrests in which officers did not properly address escape risk, Judge Howell said she had 'no alternative but to prohibit reliance on the memorandum in its entirety.' The ACLU of DC hailed the ruling as a vindication of its December lawsuit. DHS did not immediately announce whether it would appeal.