ICE Not Planning to Target Polling Locations for Noncitizens, Homan Says

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not planning to “sweep polling locations” for noncitizens during the November midterms, White House border czar Tom Homan said on Sept. 13.

Appearing on Fox News, Homan said, “There is no plan for enforcement action at polling places. It’s just another attempt to smear ICE and smear the president.”

This was in response to host Jacqui Heinrich asking whether ICE will be “raiding” voting sites.

“This is another fear tactic. This is another attack on ICE and this administration,” Homan said.

Additionally, Homan rebutted reports of ICE apprehensions at places of worship, hospitals, and elementary schools, saying there’s no “sensitive location” policy.

“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.”

Homan’s remarks come as the city of Denver and Latino and voting rights groups sued the Department of Homeland Security to prevent ICE agents from appearing at polling locations during the midterms.

Filed on Sept. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the lawsuit alleges that carrying out ICE duties at polling places violates the “troops at polls” law.

That law implements fines or jail time for federal officers who show up to “any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.”

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on Sept. 1 that DHS authorizes ICE officers to go to voting locations.

“The only reason why we would be at polling places is if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down,” he said.

“ICE’s job is immigration, customs enforcement. That’s their job … if we’re serving a warrant we will be where we need to be,” he added.

Mullin also said that “ICE isn’t there to patrol the polling places.”

In addition to Denver, the plaintiffs included the League of United Latin American Citizens, Common Cause, and UnidosUS.

“The specter of armed officers at polling places threatens the freedom of this upcoming election,” they wrote. “It places voters in fear that they will be confronted by armed federal law enforcement if they choose to cast a ballot.”

The plaintiffs also wrote that DHS did not consider “any evidence or testimony regarding the effect of authorizing armed officers to enter polling places on the integrity of our elections, states’ ability to conduct them in a free and fair manner, or voters’ fears about being confronted by federal force at the polls.”

In response to the lawsuit, a DHS spokesperson previously told The Epoch Times that “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.”