Lawsuit seeks to block deployment of ICE, federal agents to polling sites

A coalition of advocacy groups and a Democratic-led city on Thursday filed a preemptive lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from deploying armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to polling sites ahead of November’s midterm elections.  

The lawsuit asks the federal district court in Washington, D.C., to declare unlawful any plans to have armed agents at polling places and to prohibit federal officers from carrying weapons near voting locations or other sites where votes are collected. 

“The specter of armed officers at polling places threatens the freedom of this upcoming election,” the lawsuit read. “It places voters in fear that they will be confronted by armed federal law enforcement if they choose to cast a ballot.”

The lawsuit specifically named the Department of Homeland Security and ICE as defendants, as well as their respective leaders, Markwayne Mullin and David Venturella. It was filed by the liberal-leaning legal group Democracy Forward, on behalf of the League of United Latin American Citizens, Common Cause, UnidosUS and the city of Denver.

The suit cited a provision of federal law that makes it a crime for officials to oversee or order the deployment of “any troops or armed men” to “any place where a general or special election is held,” unless such a deployment is needed to repel “armed enemies of the United States.”

Although some MAGA personalities, like Steve Bannon, have called on ICE to “surround the polls,” Trump administration officials have denied concrete plans for such deployments, while at the same time not categorically ruling out the presence of agents at polling sites under some circumstances.

During a news conference in New York City earlier this month, DHS Secretary Mullin said that “ICE isn’t there to patrol the polling places.”  

But Mullin said ICE could be at polling places if there’s “a threat” to such sites or if agents are serving a warrant for someone they’ve “been actively tracking down.”

“If we’re serving a warrant, we will be where we need to be,” Mullin said when pressed again on the issue.

ICE’s deportation branch is mainly in charge of locating, arresting, detaining and deporting people who entered the U.S. illegally or otherwise violated federal immigration law. Its Homeland Security Investigations branch has historically focused on dismantling criminal activity with an international nexus, but has increasingly been assigned to help with immigration enforcement and investigations into alleged voter fraud. 

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the military has no plans to dispatch troops or National Guard soldiers to polling places.