With early voting already in progress, questions persist regarding the potential involvement of immigration enforcement officers at polling places through Election Day. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have dismissed concerns about mass deployments as “fearmongering,” but advocacy organizations representing Latino, Black, and Asian American voters say the current political rhetoric and rising immigration arrest numbers are causing legitimate alarm.
DHS officials stated earlier this year that they do not intend to station immigration agents at polling locations. During congressional testimony, then-acting ICE head Todd Lyons and Customs and Border Protection chief Rodney Scott confirmed there were no plans to patrol the polls, though Lyons has since departed his position. A DHS official also informed state election administrators that immigration agents would not be deployed for the midterms.
In September, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin accused Democrats of stoking fear over the issue. While he asserted that officers would not broadly monitor polling places, he noted they could appear for specific law enforcement purposes, such as executing a warrant or responding to a threat. Earlier in the year, then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche supported the presence of ICE at polls, stating, “Illegals can’t vote. Why are there objections to sending ICE officers to polling places?”
President Donald Trump has frequently amplified concerns about noncitizen voting, a phenomenon that research and investigations have found to be extremely rare. While Trump has not explicitly ordered ICE deployment to voting sites, he has declined to rule it out. In May, when asked if he would send the National Guard or ICE to voting locations, he replied, “I’d do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections.” In a recent interview with Time magazine, Trump said he had “haven’t thought of it” regarding ICE at the polls.
Federal law dating back to the Civil War prohibits the deployment of “troops or armed men” to election sites unless necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States. Legal experts argue this creates a significant barrier to any armed federal presence at polling places.
“It is completely and obviously illegal,” said David Becker, a former Justice Department attorney and head of the Center for Election Innovation & Research. “As soon as there is an armed individual at a polling place, there will be a court action; jurisdictions are preparing for it.”
Jonathan Diaz of the Campaign Legal Center agreed that the statute includes all voting venues, including drop boxes and early voting centers. He argued that even narrow exceptions for routine law enforcement are not carved out by the law.
Local election officials are taking the threat seriously. Dean Logan, who oversees elections in Los Angeles County, stated during a recent gathering in Washington that they are ensuring “boots on the ground” to prevent disruptions to voters.
Advocates are also mobilizing in response to the uncertainty. Dan Freeman, litigation director for the Democratic National Committee, emphasized that because neither Trump nor Mullin has ruled out ICE presence, his team is prepared to seek injunctions in court.
Juan Proaño, head of the League of United Latin American Citizens, warned that even the mere presence of ICE in the vicinity of polling places could deter turnout. “Just the mere presence of them in and around polling locations is enough of a deterrent for our community,” Proaño said, noting that social media rumors can quickly spread fear across different areas.
Groups are also pointing to an incident in Syracuse, New York, where Homeland Security Investigations agents visited a polling place to serve a notice to a woman accused of sharing officers’ personal information online. Despite these concerns, organizations like OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates and the VoteSafe coalition are recruiting monitors and community leaders to support voters in key swing states including Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, and Ohio.
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