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An official with the Department of Homeland Security told state election officials Wednesday that federal immigration agents will not be stationed at polling locations during the November midterm elections, as some Democrats have warned the Trump administration could attempt to interfere in the elections through intimidation or racial profiling.
Heather Honey, DHS’ deputy assistant secretary for election integrity, told secretaries of state on a call that “any suggestion that ICE will be present at any polling location is simply not true,” according to Arizona’s Democrat Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.
A spokeswoman for Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read, also a Democrat, said Honey likewise assured officials that immigration agents would not be stationed at polling locations. Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, also posted on X that DHS “confirms to Secretaries of State that ICE agents will not be at voting locations this year.”
Honey, who has previously endorsed claims that President Donald Trump won the 2020 election against former President Joe Biden, participated in the call, which also included representatives of the FBI, US Election Assistance Commission, Postal Service and other federal agencies to discuss coordination ahead of the midterms.
An official with the Department of Homeland Security told state election officials that federal immigration agents will not be at the polls during the midterm elections. (Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)
Digital has reached out to DHS for comment.
This comes as several Democrats have expressed concern that immigration agents may be placed at polling locations to intimidate Americans who fear they could be racially profiled and targeted if they show up to vote.
“I’m talking about something that I think would be extraordinary in American history, which is uniformed and masked ICE agents encircling polling places,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said at a recent congressional hearing. “And it’s not fantasy, and it’s not made up. We need to be clear-eyed about that. These are things that the president and his cabinet have suggested.”
The Department of Justice has been filing lawsuits seeking detailed voter data, though the department has not publicly detailed its specific rationale for each request.
Trump has also renewed his claims that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election, claims that have been widely disputed and rejected by courts, and has called on administration officials to investigate that election.
Democrats have expressed concern that immigration agents may be placed at polling locations to intimidate American voters. (Paul Richards/AFP via Getty Images)
Earlier this month, the FBI executed a search warrant at an election office in Fulton County, Georgia, seizing ballots and other voting records from 2020, according to local officials. A Democratic stronghold, Fulton County includes Atlanta. The Peach State went to Biden in 2020, but Trump carried the state in 2024.
Democratic officials and public interest lawyers across the country have been concerned for months about the possibility of Trump’s interference in the midterms voting and ballot counting.
Democrats have pointed out that Trump was willing to attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss, pardoned those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and has filled his administration with allies who backed his attempts to overturn the election defeat.
The U.S. Constitution affirms that states run elections, not federal officials. Most states have their Secretary of State oversee elections.
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Democratic officials and public interest lawyers across the country have been concerned for months about the possibility of President Donald Trump’s interference in the midterms. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Participants on the call said Democrat secretaries of state asked Honey several questions about the administration’s cuts to election security funding and its efforts to root out noncitizen voting, which is already illegal and rare, as well as concerns about federal law enforcement officers appearing at polling places.
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The White House has dismissed those concerns, saying there was no disruption during last year’s election when Democrats performed well.
During a congressional hearing earlier this month, Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott both said they were not involved in any efforts to patrol voting places.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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