Can ICE detain German citizens without a warrant?

1. What the recent cases show: detention at the border, not a courtroom warrant

Several German nationals were stopped at U.S. ports of entry or border crossings and then put into ICE custody rather than being arrested on a traditional criminal warrant — Lucas Sielaff and Jessica Brösche were detained after attempts to enter from Tijuana and taken to Otay Mesa, and Fabian Schmidt was detained after arrival at Boston Logan, with reporting showing ICE or CBP handling the cases as immigration-admissibility matters rather than arrests on judicial warrants ^{[2] [3] [5]}.

2. How U.S. immigration law and practice allow custody without a warrant

Immigration enforcement at ports of entry is governed by admission and removability rules; arriving non‑citizens have the burden to establish admissibility, and CBP/ICE routinely detain individuals they consider inadmissible or in violation of admission terms — ICE told local media Sielaff’s detention was “related to the violation of the terms and conditions of his admission,” language consistent with administrative custody rather than a warranted criminal arrest ^{[1] [5]}. Reporting and immigration-law commentary note that administrative detention can occur without a separate court-issued warrant in this context ^[4].

3. The legal gray zone: no set time limit before charges or charging documents

Immigration lawyers quoted in the coverage underline a crucial legal gap: there is reported to be no specific statutory limit on how long someone can be held in ICE detention before being informed of formal charges or released, and ICE’s earlier internal policies (like a 72‑hour charging document practice) are no longer reliably enforced, creating situations where travelers have been detained for weeks (John Gihon of the American Immigration Lawyers Association as reported) ^{[4] [6]}.

4. Government responses, consular involvement and diplomatic friction

Germany’s foreign ministry has publicly said it is monitoring the incidents and is in discussions with EU partners to determine whether the detentions reflect a broader pattern, signaling diplomatic concern when nationals are detained on unclear administrative grounds; that response underlines the cross-border political implications of administrative immigration detention ^{[7] [8]}.

5. Counterpoints and limits of the reporting

News organizations include ICE statements confirming detentions but often without detailed legal rationales, and private defenses — for example, CoreCivic disputed some claims about solitary confinement — showing conflicting accounts on conditions and processes ^[3]. The reporting does not provide a full statutory citation that a warrant is categorically unnecessary in every immigration detention scenario, so while practice and expert commentary indicate administrative detention without a warrant at ports of entry is routine, the sources do not produce a single definitive statutory excerpt proving an absolute rule ^{[4] [1] [5]}.

6. Bottom line: what readers should take away

The documented pattern in March–May 2025 reporting is clear: German citizens have been detained by U.S. immigration authorities at borders and airports without criminal warrants and held in ICE custody on admissibility or admission‑violation grounds, sometimes for weeks, and immigration-law experts warn there is little statutory protection guaranteeing a quick charge or release ^{[2] [3] [5] [4]}. The situation has provoked diplomatic monitoring from Germany and wider scrutiny, but precise legal contours and limits on detention length remain contested and incompletely illuminated in the public reporting ^{[7] [8] [4]}.