WASHINGTON — A statement by former Trump White House advisor and current #maga booster and influencer Steve Bannon asserts that federal immigration agents (ICE) will be used to “surround” polling locations in Democratic-leaning cities like Detroit, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and more.
The idea has not been endorsed by the Trump White House….yet.
In a video circulated widely on social media, Bannon suggested that ICE will be deployed to check citizenship documents before being allowed to vote. The remarks, which were not accompanied by evidence of an operational plan or authorization, nonetheless reverberated amid heightened national sensitivity to voter intimidation and election interference.
Federal law and longstanding Department of Justice guidance prohibit the presence of law-enforcement officers at polling places when their presence could intimidate voters. The Voting Rights Act bars any attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce individuals exercising the right to vote. Immigration enforcement agencies are not tasked with election security, and ICE policy generally limits enforcement actions near sensitive locations such as schools and churches—areas that often include polling sites.
But Trump continues to test the limits of how he can deploy ICE agents to carry out his political aims. Trump has been advised by the authors of the Project 2025 treatise, generated by the Heritage Foundation, that ICE could be used for an array of policy and political enforcement missions because there is discretion built into the Homeland Security Act that allows the White House to use ICE as a sort of enforcement “slush force” the way companies and organizations use “slush funds” for a wide and unspecific scope of needs.
State and local officials in Michigan, Pennsylvania and other blue and purple states have moved quickly to reassure voters. A spokesperson for Michigan’s Secretary of State said there was “no coordination, request, or legal basis” for federal immigration agents to be stationed at polling locations and urged residents to report any intimidation to local authorities and election protection hotlines. Philadelphia election officials issued a similar statement, emphasizing that polling places would remain staffed by trained, nonpartisan workers and that any unauthorized law-enforcement presence would be addressed immediately.
Republicans are moving the proposed SAVE Act through the House for a vote, legislation that would require ID and proof of citizenship at the polls despite no evidence from both blue and red states that there is no actionable voter fraud taking place.
The aim of the SAVE Act is to suppress voting among lower income voters in cities who would have difficulty gathering multiple forms of ID. Many people, for example, do not have a passport or birth certificate because they have been lost. And it takes money and time to replace them. States have already processed citizenship qualifications to vote when people register.
Republicans are also trying to ban mail-in voting despite no evidence that mail-in/absentee voting creates opportunities for fraud.
-David Kiley