Overview
- Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking Thursday at CPAC, asked why anyone objects to sending ICE to polling places and said DOJ has charged far more alleged noncitizen voting cases this year than under Biden.
- Homeland picks and aides have not ruled out such deployments, with Markwayne Mullin saying agents might be present only for specific threats and the White House press secretary saying she has heard no formal plan but could not guarantee agents will never be near polls.
- Federal law restricts government forces at polling sites and allows them only to repel armed enemies, a standard legal experts say would make routine ICE patrols at voting locations highly vulnerable to court challenges.
- Steve Bannon urged using ICE’s new airport duties as a test run for elections, after Trump said ICE would assist TSA at airports during the DHS funding lapse.
- Voting-rights groups and many election officials warn that an ICE presence could scare eligible voters in immigrant communities out of the lines, while right-leaning coverage highlights DHS denials of formal plans and frames Democrats’ alarm as overblown.