Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday refused to say whether Americans should carry their own citizenship papers to protect themselves from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), instead claiming the federal agents — even those "asking for papers" — are following the law.
A reporter at the White House asked Noem if she is "okay with federal agents and officers violating people's Fourth Amendment rights by asking for papers without reasonable suspicion?"
Noem replied: "Every single action that our ICE officers take is according to the law and following protocols that we have used for years that this administration has used, that the previous administration used. They are doing everything correctly and over and over again in litigation in the courts. We've proven that they've done the right thing."
Noem was further asked if it was within ICE's right to demand it without reasonable suspicion, and, if so, why. Noem ignored the question.
Speaking on CNN, former prosecutor Elie Honig called the practice "unconstitutional" and "illegal."
"Well, Pam, that's wrong," Honig told CNN's co-host Pamela Brown. "It's illegal and it's unconstitutional to require people to show their citizenship papers without some other basis to make a stop. So, let me be clear: In order to stop somebody, detain them, question them for immigration purposes, an officer has to have reasonable suspicion."
Honig noted it's a fairly low bar for officers to meet.
"It's lower than the bar that a law enforcement agent would need to make a stop or questioning for criminal purposes, but it's still a bar," he explained. It's not nothing. In fact, just a few months ago, in September of 2025, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a concurring opinion in a Supreme Court case when he reiterated that U.S. immigration agents do have to have reasonable suspicion to stop somebody to detain them, even briefly, and to question them."
"So, what you cannot do is just go arbitrarily up to people or set up a checkpoint or go door to door," Honig explained.
Wolf Blitzer called it a "pretty huge demand of the American people" that they start carrying their birth certificates or passports.
Trump is also threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act in the U.S., which would allow the president to deploy the military and federalize all state guards to go after Americans.