Increased ICE Enforcements Land On Apartment Industry’s Doorstep

As sweeps by Immigration and Customs Enforcement spread in accordance with President Donald Trump’s crackdown on unauthorized immigrants, reports indicate raids are increasingly carried out at apartment buildings.

The sweeps leave apartment owners and employees, along with property managers and industry associations, scrambling to determine what their legal obligations are and how to handle difficult, emotionally and politically charged interactions.

“It’s getting more common, and we should be preparing for it to become more common,” Sam Moss, executive director of Mission Housing Development Corp. in San Francisco, said of the increase in enforcement actions. “It’s been a real unifying event for everyone. Let's set aside our differences and work together to protect the safety, the physical and emotional safety, of not only our tenants but the people who work for us as well.” 

The mass deportation program could target 5.8 million households in the U.S. that are home to at least one resident lacking permanent legal status, according to an October report from the Center for Migration Studies. Of those, nearly 5 million households are home to mixed-status families, meaning homes that include U.S. citizens and unauthorized immigrants, according to CMS.

Bisnow reached out to ICE to get more information about these raids, including their frequency and what apartment owners and staff should expect, but has yet to receive a response. ICE has been given more leeway in enforcement, including a recent Trump administration executive order rescinding a policy that banned enforcement actions at schools, hospitals, places of worship and other “sensitive locations.”

Interviews with different property managers and apartment associations found that while there is across-the-board agreement that staff members cooperate with federal law enforcement brandishing a warrant, the procedures to determine that tend to vary considerably. Immigration enforcement remains a civil matter.

According to a member resource document prepared by the National Apartment Association, in light of this increased immigration enforcement, “It is still uncertain how widespread such enforcement actions will be, and many apartment owners and operators are concerned that they could be pulled into the fray.”

ICE agents may use either administrative warrants or judicial warrants signed by a judge, and they have broad permission to be in public spaces. NAA resources, which shouldn’t be taken as legal advice, suggest a simple rule for determining which is which: Look at who signed it. 

“If it has been issued by a court and signed by a judge, then it is a criminal warrant. If it has been issued by DHS/ICE and was only signed by an immigration officer, it is a civil administrative warrant,” NAA's guidance says.

But even with an administrative warrant, they don’t have the right to enter private property. Often, ICE officers will wait in public areas, such as parking lots, and apprehend the people they are seeking once they leave private spaces. 

The question facing apartment staff is how to determine which warrant they have and how to react. 

“Property owners and commercial establishments have a right to privacy, and their employees generally do not have to allow ICE onto their facility,” according to NAA, which also says that absent a criminal warrant, there is no requirement to engage in discussion with an agent or identify any tenants or their immigration status.

“If ICE wanted to take custody of someone, ICE agents would have to wait outside on public property, unless the property owners allowed them in. However, failure to cooperate could lead to antagonism and further enforcement efforts on the part of ICE.”

Mission Housing Development Corp., which operates more than 30 different buildings, has engaged in “know your rights” training for those who work and live in Mission Housing developments, Moss said. Mission Housing experienced ICE enforcement actions during the first Trump administration. But Moss said they are far from common, and he hasn’t heard of an operation in San Francisco over the last few weeks.

Moss is quick to say that “unequivocally,” none of this training suggests someone should disregard a valid warrant. The organization’s standing policy, created during the first Trump administration, is that the executive team needs to have lawyers with them to review any warrant to deem it valid before law enforcement can enter buildings. 

Moss has instructed staff not to make any determination around warrants and instead to call and wait for the organization’s legal counsel to arrive. Mission Housing has signs posted across its properties explaining this distinction and noting that no warrant will be deemed valid without such review.

“I'm aware of one individual being arrested, I believe, but I'm not aware of specific raids [at apartment buildings], and frankly, I'm afraid to even be talking to you,” Moss said.

Other property owners have taken a different tack, preferring to get out of the way of ICE staff and let law enforcement do its job.  

Property managers should be good, supportive citizens, and it “behooves us to not antagonize law enforcement,” according to Charlie Hoats, director of SIBSCO Property Management and Institute of Real Estate Management, an industry association.

He sees this stance as another plank of the organization’s anticrime policies.

Members of IREM haven’t reported any uptick in these interactions, Hoats said, but he told Bisnow that he is “recommending to our people that they use their own best judgment.”

“If agents have a warrant and they say it’s valid and they need to get through, allow them to do their job,” he said. “For a number of reasons, asking on-site staff not experienced in such matters to determine if they are looking at authentic, proper and valid warrants is a horrible idea.”

The situation will likely get more complicated for apartment owners and managers. Federal, state and local fair housing regulators prohibit owners from screening tenants based on immigration status, so trying to avoid such issues via tenant screening may lead to legal action. 

Landlords for housing subsidized by the Department of Housing and Urban Development may have mixed-status households, with certain members of a family or apartment who don't have legal status residing with those who do. The arrangement, legalized under former President Joe Biden’s administration, may be rescinded by the Trump administration. 

In addition to immigrants and property management companies, on-site staff are coming face-to-face with the situation at hand and will most likely be the ones tasked with handling the outcome.

The guidance provided by the NAA asks residents, companies and front-line workers to understand resident rights, learn the difference between civil and criminal arrests, and identify warrants to ensure the safety of the building's occupants.

This level of responsibility could lead to difficult interactions when these employees don’t exactly know what they are looking for in the heat of the moment. It could also lead to liability issues. For example, if employees were to deter ICE agents from apprehending a specific person and that person later commits a crime, they could be liable to an extent, at least morally, Hoats said.

This only adds to the emotional layers stacked on these raids, which continue to gain traction.

“Asking the gal behind the reception desk to decide whether a federal warrant is valid isn’t right,” Hoats said.