basics of an ICE administrative warrant

By Margo Kirchner

​The administrative warrant held by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers for the arrest of Eduardo Flores-Ruiz at the Milwaukee County Courthouse on April 18, 2025, was simply a form signed by an ICE agent.

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Supervisor Anthony Nimtz testified on Monday during the trial of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan that he signed the Flores-Ruiz administrative warrant, known as an I-200, on April 17.

Dugan is charged with interfering with ICE agents’ arrest of Flores-Ruiz at the county courthouse on April 18. The type of warrant ICE officers held is an issue in the case.

Nimtz acknowledged during his testimony that ICE officers did not have a type of warrant that allowed them to enter nonpublic areas but instead had the I-200 signed by Nimtz. He added that Milwaukee County officers are directed to not let ICE make arrests in nonpublic portions of the county courthouse.

He said that arrests in a courthouse avoid safety risks for ICE officers, as subjects have been screened for weapons when entering the building.

According to Nimtz and the copy of the Flores-Ruiz warrant shown in court, an I-200 warrant commands an ICE officer to take the individual into custody for removal proceedings under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Nimtz testified that Flores-Ruiz met two characteristics of ICE policy for arrest: public safety issues and having reentered the country illegally after removal. Noncitizen Flores-Ruiz had previously been ordered to leave the country on Jan. 15, 2013.

Nimtz acknowledged that whether a prior order of removal like Flores-Ruiz’s 2013 order is to be reinstated is also up to ICE officers. They can issue warrants of removal—or orders of deportation—using a form known as an I-205.

On cross-examination by Dugan's attorney, Nicole Masnica, Nimtz admitted that ICE arrests could use arrest warrants issued by federal judges or administrative law judges, but in Flores-Ruiz’s case the warrant was one signed by him as an ICE supervisor.

A field operations worksheet (FOW) about Flores-Ruiz signed by Nimtz on April 17 and shown to the jury on Monday included Flores-Ruiz’s address. Nimtz agreed that the type of warrant he issued could not be used to go into someone’s home.

Nimtz acknowledged an error in the FOW paperwork, which directs notice to the police department where an ICE arrest will take place. The FOW for Flores-Ruiz noted district 2, which is on the southside of Milwaukee, rather than district 1 where the county courthouse is located or even district 3 where Ruiz lived. Nimtz said he did not notice the error at the time.

Nor did he make sure he had an accurate understanding of the charges in Flores-Ruiz's Milwaukee County court case when he signed the FOW and I-200. Nimtz said that at the time he signed the documents he thought Flores-Ruiz had pending charges for strangulation or suffocation. Nimtz found out only later that the actual charges against Flores-Ruiz were misdemeanor battery charges.

He acknowledged on cross-examination that safety protections for ICE officers regarding courthouse arrests would still exist if ICE officers waited to arrest a subject when the subject is leaving the building.