Napolitano to Newsmax: Private Entities 'Do Not Have to Cooperate' With ICE Raids

As President Donald Trump's immigration raids launch across the country, retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax that private entities "do not have to cooperate" with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and should be asking to see a warrant.

"Over the weekend in Newark, New Jersey, ICE conducted a raid — they arrested Americans," Napolitano said Monday on "Wake Up America." "They didn't have search warrants. They didn't know who they were looking for. They walked into a Hispanic food facility, and they arrested everybody. Some were Americans. One was an American who was an Army veteran. They let everybody go. It was a waste of everybody's time."

"So the warrant requirement is not just a technical requirement under the Constitution," he continued. "It forces the government to be more efficient. They know who they're looking for. They have the warrant. They identify the person. They arrest them. Without that warrant, it's just a waste of everybody's time."

On Thursday, immigration agents raided an unidentified business establishment in Newark, New Jersey's most populous city, and detained illegal immigrants as well as citizens. Mayor Ras Baraka has previously touted his city's sanctuary status and said the raid violated the citizens' rights under the Constitution.

"One of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned," Baraka said.

In one of its many first-week actions aimed at immigration, the Trump administration scrapped the Biden-era guidance that limited federal immigration arrests near sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals, and churches.

Napolitano said that healthcare staffers have the right to request that federal immigration authorities show them an arrest warrant before ICE removes an illegal migrant.

"The hospitals have the right to do that," he said. "The churches, I can't imagine a priest stopping mass demanding to see a warrant. I don't think these people are going to interrupt a mass, but any private entity should ask to see a warrant first, and the government should be getting these warrants. Then the government can do its job."

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