White House border czar Tom Homan has dismissed reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will conduct enforcement operations at polling stations during the November midterm elections.
Speaking on Fox News host Jacqui Heinrich’s programme, “The Sunday Briefing,” on Sunday, Homan said he was unaware of any plans for ICE agents to carry out raids or arrests at voting locations.
His comments came after Heinrich asked about claims that ICE would be “raiding” polling places during the elections.
Homan rejected the reports, describing them as an attempt to frighten voters and discredit the Trump administration.
“This is another fear tactic. This is another attack on ICE and this administration,” Homan said about the claims.
“I mean, they don’t want ICE near the polling places, they don’t want to vote for voter ID, they don’t want observers. What have they got to hide to begin with, right? But there is no plan for enforcement action at polling places. It’s just another attempt to smear ICE and smear the president.”
Homan said he had not seen “any operational plans or any discussions on any immigration enforcement operation at polling places.”
He also rejected reports that ICE had been conducting arrests at elementary schools, hospitals and places of worship, arguing that immigration authorities would continue to pursue people considered security threats.
“If you’re a criminal alien, you’re a national security threat, there’s no sanctuary,” he said.
“But look at the past two years. Not one instance of ICE operating at a sensitive location, [including] polling places.”
Despite Homan’s comments, concerns over the possible presence of federal immigration officers at polling stations have already triggered legal action.
Latino civil rights and voting rights organisations, alongside the city of Denver, filed a lawsuit last week seeking to prevent ICE officers from operating at polling locations.
The plaintiffs cited federal laws dating back to the post-Civil War era that prohibit armed federal personnel from being present at polling stations in order to protect voters from intimidation.
Lawyers representing Denver and groups including the League of United Latin American Citizens, Common Cause and UnidosUS warned that the possibility of armed immigration officers at polling places could discourage people from voting.
“The specter of armed officers at polling places threatens the freedom of this upcoming election,” the lawyers wrote.
“It places voters in fear that they will be confronted by armed federal immigration enforcement officers if they choose to cast a ballot,” they added.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had previously indicated that ICE could appear at polling locations under certain circumstances.
Earlier this month, Mullin said ICE officers would be present if there was a security threat or a warrant for “someone that we have been actively tracking down.”
He made a similar point during an interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt in June, saying ICE would not routinely operate at polling places because the “only people that should be voting there is American citizens.”
Democratic lawmakers have criticised any suggestion that armed ICE personnel could operate at voting locations, arguing that their presence could intimidate voters.
The dispute comes as the Trump administration prepares for the November midterm elections and pursues several changes affecting the voting process.
The Department of Justice is planning to deploy monitors to voting sites, while the administration has also pushed for restrictions on mail-in voting and sought to create voter lists alongside increased election security measures.
