A coalition of voting-rights groups and the city of Denver has filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from carrying out operations at polling stations during November’s US midterm elections.
The legal action, brought in federal court in Washington DC by Democracy Forward on behalf of the League of United Latin American Citizens, Common Cause, UnidosUS and Denver, names the Department of Homeland Security, ICE and their senior officials as defendants.
The plaintiffs want the court to rule that any plan to deploy armed federal agents at voting locations is unlawful. They are also seeking an order preventing federal officers from carrying weapons near polling places, ballot drop boxes and other sites where votes are collected.
The case points to a federal law dating from the Civil War which makes it a criminal offence for officials to station troops or armed personnel at a place where a general or special election is being held, except where force is needed to repel armed enemies of the United States.
The lawsuit argues that the presence of armed immigration officers could deter people from voting, particularly naturalised citizens and members of minority communities who fear being questioned or detained. It says federal force at polling stations would also disrupt the work of local election officials and create “spaces of confrontation”. ([cbsnews.com](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lawsuit-block-ice-agents-polling-sites/?intcid=CNI-00-10aaa3a))
The Trump administration has denied having concrete plans to patrol polling places, but officials have stopped short of ruling out agents attending a voting site in specific circumstances.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said ICE is not intended to patrol polling stations. However, he has also indicated that agents could attend if there were a threat to a site or if officers were serving a warrant against someone they were actively pursuing.
“If we’re serving a warrant, we will be where we need to be,” Mr Mullin said at a news conference earlier this month. The lawsuit argues that such assurances leave voters and election officials uncertain about whether armed federal agents could appear during voting.
The legal challenge follows reports of ICE activity around polling sites during recent primary elections. The complaint refers to an incident in San Antonio, Texas, where agents reportedly detained someone in a polling-site car park before a county sheriff directed them to leave, as well as an appearance by ICE vehicles near an active polling place in Ventura County, California.
It also cites a late-June incident in Syracuse, New York, in which ICE agents entered an active polling location and confronted a poll worker over a social media post concerning the fatal shooting of an immigration-enforcement officer.
Federal law prohibits armed federal personnel from being stationed at election sites, according to legal analysis published by the Brennan Center for Justice. Election officials and local authorities have been preparing procedures for documenting any federal presence, contacting law enforcement and keeping voting operating if a disruption occurs. ([brennancenter.org](https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/preventing-voter-intimidation-federal-agents-polls))
The lawsuit comes amid a broader push by the administration to investigate alleged non-citizen voting and obtain voter information from state and county authorities. Democracy Forward says it has collected records showing ICE officials seeking voter-registration details and voting histories from local election offices in Texas and North Carolina. ([democracyforward.org](https://democracyforward.org/work/investigations/federal-engagement-with-state-and-local-election-offices/))
Gen Daniel Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the military has no plans to send troops or National Guard personnel to polling stations. The court is now being asked to settle whether immigration-enforcement operations at voting sites would breach federal election law before the midterms begin.
