Real estate professionals are increasingly asking CRE Insight Journal for information on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as it relates to access to commercial properties. In response, CRE Insight Journal has developed the following question-based guide that real estate professionals can use to best serve their properties, tenants, visitors, and owners. This guide is intended to spark questions, thought, and conversation among real estate professionals, those they report to, and their teams.

Access to Property  

• What is my property’s protocol for responding to an administrative warrant?  

• What is my property’s protocol for responding to a judicial warrant? 

• What do the terms of lease agreements for my property state relative to providing third-party access to tenant spaces – and are all lease agreements consistent in this language? Furthermore, how does this relate to judicial (providing access is required) and administrative warrants?

• What is my property’s communications plan if ICE accesses the property? What elements are important to incorporate into such a plan? 

• Should my property consider creating a proactive communications plan for tenants to provide transparency on the property’s plan for responding to judicial and administrative warrants? What would be the range of possible outcomes for our property if we do or do not implement such a plan?

• What is my property’s plan for responding to news media inquiries?  

• What is my property’s plan for responding to news media that request access to the property during or after an instance of ICE accessing the property? 

• If ICE enters the property, what records are required to be kept or should be kept? What liability may be created or diminished by retaining or not retaining such records? 

• Are all service contracts current and fully executed and do they align with property requirements as well as include language to ensure service providers comply with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986? 

• Who can best provide the legal, communications, consulting, human resources support, and other resources that the property and our real estate team may need? 

• What other questions should be asked? 

Awareness of Self and Team 

• What am I responsible for and who am I responsible to? 

• How can we ensure all members of the property’s management, operations, and leasing teams have access to the same and consistent information and resources?  

• How can we best ensure individuals are able to ask questions over time? 

• What do safety and security professionals who serve the property need to be aware of? 

• What is my own internal response to a situation and how does that affect how I lead and serve others? 

• How can I continue to ensure positive mental and physical health for myself? 

• How can I best care for and serve my colleagues, tenants, and others?  

What is an administrative warrant? 

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement administrative warrant form is a document issued by ICE officials rather than a judge. An administrative warrant authorizes the detention or arrest of individuals suspected of violating immigration laws. Administrative warrants do not grant authority to enter private property without consent or a judicial warrant. However, keep in mind that a warrant is not required for ICE to enter public areas of a property. It is important for real estate professionals to know the language in leases for tenant spaces and their corporate and property protocol related to responding to administrative warrants. 

What is a judicial warrant? 

Judicial warrants are court-issued orders related to the arrest of an individual; search of a specific location; the seizure of property; or a bench warrant related to an individual who failed to comply with a court order. Judicial warrants are signed by a judge and authorize entry into private property and private space within a property.  

How to Use This Resource

Learn how real estate professionals are using this question-based resource through this subsequently published short article, “ICE and CRE: From Questions to Action.”

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