A group of organizations and the city of Denver, Colo., have sued President Donald Trump’s administration over potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence at the polls.
“The lawsuit challenges a policy confirmed and clarified by U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin on September 1, when he said that ICE officers could enter polling places to serve warrants or conduct other immigration and customs enforcement activity,” said Democracy Forward in a Thursday press release.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said he plans to “fight tooth and nail to prevent,” ICE from going to polling places to protect the right to vote “without fear of intimidation.”
As mentioned by Democracy Forward, Mullin – who replaced former DHS head Kristi Noem earlier this year – discussed potential ICE presence at the polls during a Sept. 1 news conference in New York City.
“ICE is not planning operations targeting polling locations. 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,” he said, per POLITICO.
While Mullin said that “ICE isn’t there to patrol the polling places,” the suggestion that ICE enforcement could occur at these sites resulted in concerns.
There was also an incident in June that made headlines. A poll worker said two federal officers visited her at a voting location during New York’s primaries to confront her about a social media post she’d written criticizing the ICE officer who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis, according to the Associated Press. Good was a U.S. citizen shot dead by ICE agents earlier this year.
“Paigelynne Gonyea said the confrontation happened Tuesday while she was working at a polling place in Syracuse,” said the AP. “Two officers gave Gonyea a written notice stating that she might be in violation of federal laws that prevent publicly posting personal information about federal officers, she said.”
There have been other concerns related to midterm election voting as economic pressures seem to be giving Democrats an edge in prediction polls. Trump and his administration have made moves regarding mail in ballots and congressional maps, for example.
“The suit explains that the policy violates, among other laws, a federal law that has prohibited anyone from sending armed federal personnel to polling places for more than 150 years, and that the presence of armed officers is intimidating and threatening,” said Democracy Forward of the new lawsuit and the Trump administration’s “policy of authorizing armed” ICE officers to conduct enforcement operations.
In the lawsuit, the Act of February 25, 1865 is cited. According to the suit, during “the final months of the Civil War, Congress, in order to preserve free and fair elections in the dearly defended union, enacted a law prohibiting federal officials, on penalty of fine and imprisonment, from ordering or placing ‘any troops or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.’”
Since then, “the executive branch has generally respected and obeyed this prohibition,” said the suit.
“The complaint alleges that the administration’s new policy directly defies that prohibition by authorizing armed ICE officers to enter polling locations for ordinary immigration enforcement, including serving warrants and detaining people suspected of being unlawfully present in the United States. It also explains that the new policy violates the federal prohibition on arbitrary and capricious government action,” Democracy Forward explained.
Last year, the Brennan Center for Justice did a dive into the Posse Comitatus Act. It bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement except when expressly authorized by law.
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the Common Cause voting rights organization with nearly one million members and UnidosUS (the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization with more than 300 affiliates nationwide) joined Denver to file the suit. said Juan Proaño, CEO of LULAC, said it his organization wants to make sure everyone who is eligible to vote gets a fair chance to cast their ballot.
“The right to vote is foundational to our democracy and yet this administration continues in its endless attempts to weaken the very institutions it is entrusted to protect,” said Proaño. “The outcomes of elections define the future for all of us, and in America, voters should be able to cast their ballots without fear of intimidation by armed ICE officers at polling places. We are proud to join this litigation and fight to protect fundamental American freedom.”
Common Cause President & CEO Virginia Kase Solomón said putting “armed officers in polling places is a tactic used by dictators, but we won’t be scared out of exercising our rights,” and UnidosUS President & CEO Janet Murguía said allowing ICE at polling places functions as “voter suppression.”
Democracy Forward noted that early voting is set to begin in several states as early as this month. In just weeks, Americans will hit the polls to cast their ballots by Nov. 3.
