What ICE agents can and cannot legally do during arrests

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Masked, plain-clothed agents are grabbing people they believe are undocumented immigrants off the streets, pulling them into unmarked vehicles and swiftly detaining them.

In other cases, masked agents are running checkpoints in the middle of Washington, D.C., and in L.A., and questioning people in their cars.

And in some situations, agents are smashing the windows of those cars in order to pull a person out.

Immigration agents are often given wide latitude in their work. That means a lot of what the public has been witnessing since President Trump took office — and may be shocked by — is likely legal.

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But what is allowable is becoming more unclear as these tactics test the limits of the law, according to immigration law experts.

"In that sense it is a very confusing time for lawyers and the public alike," says Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the UCLA School of Law's Center for Immigration Law & Policy.

NPR asked immigration law experts to explain what we know is and isn't legal when it comes to immigration enforcement.

Q. Federal law gives immigration officials power to arrest and question immigrants. What are those powers? Can they make arrests without warrants?

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency in charge of immigration enforcement, was created after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.