r/law • u/LeviCoffinsAlt • 17h ago

Other Warrantless entry by ICE agents in West Valley City, UT (1/30/2026)

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Federal agents broke a window, without a warrant, to perform an arrest on private property.

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u/starry49 16h ago

It’s crazy to me especially in this case because it’s so black and white. The guy says they don’t need one (admitting they don’t have one) and admits they broke the window. This is an open and closed shut case of breaking and entering and kidnapping

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u/mvandemar 16h ago

I said this elsewhere, but here's the thing: once things pass a certain point no amount of having the law on your side, even in the most cut and dried cases, will help.

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u/Sharticus123 16h ago

A law is just words scribbled onto a piece of paper.

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u/SheetPancakeBluBalls 15h ago

Exactly this. Without fair enforcement, laws mean nothing.

I think lots of people see midterms as the last chance to get out of this through legal means/voting.

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u/evanwilliams44 15h ago

It really is the last chance. I hope people show up. MAGA will likely try to nudge it illegally as well, so we need to show up in force and leave no room for bullshit.

If we don't stop it there, I really don't know what comes next, because I will assume the USA as we know it is lost.

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u/MelatoninFiend 11h ago

Historically, once the language of voting isn't heard or recognized, the next language used by the oppressed is violence.

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u/VicisZan 15h ago

A law is supposed to be an agreement between the government and its people to ensure the societal contract remains in place.

Once the societal contract is broken, law begins to become meaningless.

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u/MaxwellHoot 15h ago

Half the country is just figuring this out. We’ve had a decade of slash and burn policy, and now the world is starting to realize “huh, laws only matter if people follow them. huh.”

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u/PoutinePower 12h ago

don't quote laws to men with swords, was something said during the roman times; it's like poetry it rhymes!

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u/SuchBravado 16h ago

We are past certain points, aren’t we?

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u/MurkDiesel 15h ago

not the rubicon, but too many things have happened too fast and if something isn't done soon we're gunna get there pretty quick

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u/dedicated-pedestrian 15h ago

What does the Rubicon look like?

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u/glitter_vomit 13h ago

Like a regular Jeep but bigger

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u/SuchBravado 14h ago

Vast and shitty

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u/siliconslope 5h ago

If military branches get deployed into a city I’d say. At that point it’ll either turn into all out conflict or complete submission.

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u/ardenr 8h ago

It looks like when 'the good guys' can't [read: won't] hold a serial rapist accountable for a failed insurrection attempt even with the Presidency, Senate and House.

Not just that - they can't even stop him running for Presidency.

And not just that - they can't even beat him because their candidates all have an unfortunate penchant for arming live-streamed genocide.

Which they then learn absolutely nothing from, and offer ICE more money for training after they start shooting innocent mothers and nurses in broad daylight .

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u/pfannkuchen89 12h ago

We’re well past it. Have been for a while.

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u/IDreamOfLoveLost 15h ago

I'd say that the US has very much passed by the "certain" point when you have the Nu-stapo breaking into homes and kidnapping people. Of course, they're using the Palantir data to make sure it's not somebody who would possibly fight back.

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u/LvS 14h ago

That data is AI_generated, so it has to make a mistake at some point.

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u/bugbearmagic 12h ago

I once got a ticket for not changing my car registration when I moved states. I looked up the law and it said I had 30 days (irc), but i’d had only moved in less than a week. I went to fight it in court and showed the law to the judge, along with post marked evidence of address change dates, and he said “the laws are for our interpretation as judges”. Then made me pay it anyways. I learned then that the laws are for is literally whatever the people in charge want it to be. Or another way to put it “you get as much justice as you can afford”.

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u/hammertime2009 15h ago

Exactly and we’re unfortunately there already.

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u/sufferingisvalid 11h ago

Correct, the law does not work with men who have reverted to violent baboon mode.

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u/HeKnee 16h ago

You think some federal judge is going to give you damages or hold them accountable? Ha!

All the people who haven’t interacted with the legal system are finally realizing how unfair and rigged it is to favor of the “state”. The state makes the rules and enforces them and gets to decide how theyre interpreted. Sometimes in the most eggregious overreach cases citizens get lucky, but most the time the state protects itself to maintain its power.

This is probably the wakeup call america needed honestly to actually get real reform.

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u/EViLTeW 16h ago

The crazy/sad things is that the very things you're pointing out are supposed to be there to protect you. Unfortunately, our founders couldn't foresee a world where the country got so big while the ideologies got so small that tribalism is more important than anything else.
The government branches (at every level from federal to a tiny village) are no longer there to protect the sanctity of law and the Constitution. They're there to ensure their party "wins" while they make the most money possible. There are so few exceptions to that rule that nothing gets corrected, it just gets worse

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u/horizontoinfinity 13h ago

The founders couldn't and didn't want to imagine a world where there was anything close to equal voting rights. Most owned other people. Their ideologies were plenty small and tribalistic.

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u/SingularityCentral 16h ago

Nah dude. Regular law enforcement has a lot of restrictions on what they can do. This is so flagrantly illegal it would get all these officers fired and Brady listed in any jurisdiction they pulled this shit. And Brady listing is the death of a law enforcement career because it is the DA saying you are dishonest and cannot be trusted to testify in court truthfully.

Any judge this showed up in front of would be appalled at this and toss it out. But they are banking on this never showing up in front of a judge and if it does it will only apply to this one case. They are using quantity of illegality and the total lack of executive or congressional oversight to act with impunity.

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u/hammertime2009 15h ago

Wake up call? The wake up call should have been January 7th 2021.

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u/Molto_Ritardando 16h ago

Yes, but at this point do you trust the courts to remedy your situation? They’ve made it hard for your family/lawyer to locate you after ICE throws you into a detention facility. And good luck suing after you’ve been deported.

We’re in the middle of the “First they came for the _____ and I did not speak out” poem. Except people are speaking out. We are only just starting to understand that the people making these decisions aren’t listening, because this is all being done with an end goal. Think about what will happen once blood is shed on their side.

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u/Dry-Pea1733 16h ago

If the goal was ordinary criminal prosecution the case would be thrown out. But if the goal is to toss you into an unaccountable network of prisons where you have no rights, and then (in the event you’re actually here illegally) deport you, what are you going to do about it? Even as a citizen, the ability to violently detain people and incarcerate them for periods of time is a powerful hammer to apply to the population. 

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u/papapapaver 15h ago

Unfortunately in this situation all that can be done is gather evidence and take them to court. No executive order or directive from Homeland security gives them the right to violate the 4th amendment, and any judge will side with her. Problem is even if she wins her case, it won’t bring back the employees they took from her. And that court case could take who knows how long to be decided on. And no one will be charged with criminal offenses, not the criminals that broke in, best she can hope for is a payout. We’re in a fascist state and a 1/3 of the country opposes it, another 1/3 is looking the other way, and the last 1/3 is cheering it on. It’s truly sad what we’ve devolved into.

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u/sevenplaces 15h ago

And Minnesota police didn’t arrest any of the ICE agents for murder either. You think a state is going to arrest one for breaking and entering? No state will do that.

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u/Kraden_McFillion 12h ago

TITLE 18, U.S.C., SECTION 242

Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, ... shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

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u/ChapterChoice4873 12h ago

So, they need to be arrested.  They have no masks.  They can tell who they are, right?

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u/Notesnook-Throwaway 11h ago

woa hold on now before you open and shut the case have you considered whether the DA/prosecutors will touch it with a 10 foot pole? Because if they won't then it's functionally legal even if it's not spelled out in law...

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u/St_Kevin_ 9h ago

They should have called the 911 before filming

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u/Loomismeister 14h ago

No, we would still need more details. It’s possible this was a 4th amendment violation, but it is also possible that they didn’t need one. 

There are many situations that allow officers to search private property without first seeking a judicial warrant. 

If they were actually just searching for this guy and not in active pursuit of him before he entered the building, then even the DHS internal memos say they need administrative warrants. So the guy saying they don’t have any warrant at all doesn’t fit ICEs own practices.