ICE will not be at polling locations throughout midterms : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa6%2Faa%2Ff2d43efb488bb0d483bc68f29263%2Fap25298702135368.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3000x2000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa6%2Faa%2Ff2d43efb488bb0d483bc68f29263%2Fap25298702135368.jpg" class="img" alt="A voter carries a ballot during early voting for New York City's mayoral election on Oct. 25, 2025." fetchpriority="high"/> A voter carries a poll throughout early voting for New York Metropolis's mayoral election on Oct. 25, 2025. Olga Fedorova/AP disguise caption

toggle caption

Olga Fedorova/AP In a name Wednesday with most of the high voting officers throughout the nation, a senior Division of Homeland Safety official acknowledged that Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers wouldn't be patrolling polling locations throughout this 12 months's midterm elections.

"Any suggestion that ICE goes to be current at polling locations is just disinformation," mentioned Heather Honey, DHS assistant secretary for election integrity, based on a participant on the decision who spoke to NPR on the situation of anonymity. "There will probably be no ICE presence at polling areas."

Kentucky Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams confirmed the promise in a social media put up as properly.

Federal regulation prohibits federal troops or regulation enforcement from interfering with voting, and states have the constitutional authority to run their very own elections.

However for all of his second time period, President Trump has voiced an openness to unprecedented involvement by the federal authorities in these state processes.

He has additionally continued to push false claims about noncitizen voter fraud — together with throughout Tuesday evening's State of the Union handle — and people in his orbit have brazenly mentioned the potential of immigration enforcement at voting areas.

"We will have ICE encompass the polls come November," mentioned former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on his podcast earlier this month. "We're not going to sit down right here and mean you can steal the nation once more."

Shortly after, White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt was requested about these feedback and he or she responded that she "cannot assure" that an ICE agent would not be round a polling location in November.

All of that has led to deep concern from voting officers from each main political events, who say they're actively getting ready for some kind of federal interference on this 12 months's midterms, although they've been hard-pressed to say what that involvement would appear like. These considerations have been heightened after the current FBI raid of the elections hub in Fulton County, Ga., which seems immediately tied to debunked claims about Trump's loss in 2020.

On Wednesday's midterm preparations name — which included representatives from the Justice Division, DHS, the Postal Service and different federal businesses — a number of Democratic secretaries of state requested questions that alluded to that uncertainty.

California's secretary of state, Democrat Shirley Weber, requested Honey, the DHS official, whether or not states would have advance discover if ICE brokers have been despatched to polling locations.

Honey responded by saying such a premise was "disinformation."

The promise is very notable coming from Honey, who comes from the election denial grassroots that sprouted out of Trump's false election claims in 2020. Earlier than her present put up at DHS, she labored intently with Trump's former lawyer Cleta Mitchell to unfold misinformation in regards to the reliability of the nation's voting programs.