Civil rights groups filed a lawsuit seeking to keep ICE away from polling places, arguing the agency’s presence could intimidate voters.
ICE may be present at voting locations
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says ICE may respond to “specific threats” or carry out warrant-related operations at polling places.
A Latino civil rights group filed a lawsuit Sept. 10 aimed at keeping Immigration and Customs Enforcement out of polling places at the upcoming midterm elections, saying sending armed forces to U.S. polling places will “intimidate voters.”
The lawsuit, filed by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), follows Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin stating ICE officers can go to polling places across the United States. Mullin said ICE officers will go to polling places in response to “specific threats” or to serve a warrant.
Critics say Mullin’s policy is aimed at intimidating voters, will upend longstanding American norms, and violate a law keeping armed forces out of polling places that dates back to the end of the Civil War.
“This policy does its damage before a single officer walks through the door,” said Juan Proaño, LULAC’s CEO. “When a grandmother who has voted for 40 years, a naturalized citizen casting her first ballot, or a young man whose parents lack status hears that ICE may be waiting at the polls, many of them will stay home.”
He added: “That is the chilling effect, and it falls hardest on Latino families in mixed-status households.”
DHS on Sept. 10 confirmed Mullin’s comments earlier this month that officers will only go to polls as part of “targeted enforcement actions.”
“ICE is not planning operations targeting polling locations,” a DHS spokesperson said. ICE conducts intelligence-driven targeted enforcement, and if an active public safety threat endangered a polling location, they may be arrested as a result of that targeted enforcement action.”
Mullin’s move to allow ICE into polling places comes as the agency has faced scrutiny and criticism under President Donald Trump. ICE has also faced criticism over officers wearing masks that conceal their identities, as well as fatal shootings involving Renee Good in Minneapolis, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Silverio Villegas Gonzalez outside Chicago. Dozens of people have also died in detention centers.
LULAC filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sept. 10. The city and county of Denver, Latino civil rights group UnidosUS and liberal-leaning watchdog group Common Cause joined in LULAC’s lawsuit against DHS, ICE, Mullin and Acting ICE Director David Venturella.
“The right to vote, and to do so without fear of intimidation, is fundamental to our democracy and to being an American,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said in a statement. “Stationing ICE agents near polling places is only meant to scare people and suppress votes. We’ll fight tooth and nail to prevent it.”