Election Officials Are Bracing For ICE To Show Up At The Midterms

Concerns began when the Trump administration launched mass deployments of ICE agents to cities like Chicago and Minneapolis, set against a backdrop of a much broader attack on elections and democracy from the Trump administration. On February 2, Trump called to “nationalize” elections. A day later former White House adviser Steve Bannon told his podcast listeners, “We're going to have ICE surround the polls come November.” While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) later ruled out the possibility that ICE would be deployed to the polls while on a call with scores of election officials, on March 18, the new Homeland Security secretary Markwayne Mullin refused to rule out the possibility during his confirmation hearing, underlining the confusing and sometimes contradictory messaging coming from the administration that’s already having a chilling effect on voters and election workers. Before he departed for his state visit to China last week, Trump was asked whether he’d be willing to deploy the National Guard or ICE agents to the midterms, to which he responded, “I would do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections.” When WIRED asked for comment regarding ICE being deployed to the polls this week, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, “President Trump has been clear: Securing our elections and ensuring only American citizens vote in American elections is a top priority.”