ICE OUT! Don’t Intimidate Voters

Jun 22, 2026 10:06 AM EDT, Mon

The problem(s) with Mullin’s answer about ICE agents at voting precincts

The administration keeps confronting opportunities to make clear that it won’t deploy ICE agents to polling places. It also keeps leaving the door wide open.

Jun. 15, 2026, 3:21 PM EDT By Steve Benen

For months, Democratic officials have shared their widespread concern that the Trump administration may try to deploy federal troops to local voting precincts in the fall. Those fears were heightened last week when Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee blocked an effort to strengthen existing limits.

But it’s not just military personnel who may be deployed.

In recent months there has been related talk in conservative circles about sending immigration agents to polling places, which seemed ridiculous — right up until a variety of Republicans on Capitol Hill and conservative media outlets started endorsing the suggestion. The louder that conversation became on the right, the more important it became when administration officials refused to rule out the possibility.

As recently as last month, a reporter asked Donald Trump directly about possibly sending agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to voting locations. “You know what?” the president replied. “I’ll do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections.”

That came on the heels of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appearing at a conservative event and asking the rhetorical question, “Why is there objection to sending ICE officers to polling places? Illegals can’t vote.”

With 20 weeks to go before Election Day 2026, the administration’s position is still not inspiring confidence.

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Kasie Hunt asked Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin whether he was prepared to rule out the possible deployment of ICE agents to local polling stations.

As Mullin really ought to understand, it’s not nearly so simple. Having ICE officials unnecessarily patrolling local voting precincts can, and likely would, have the chilling effect of intimidating American citizens who can vote legally but don’t want to deal with harassment from armed federal agents.

In case that weren’t enough, as the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law recently explained, there’s ample evidence to conclude that sending ICE agents to polling places is illegal.

Mullin went on to tell Hunt that ICE agents could be deployed in response to requests from state and local officials or in response to immediate threats, such as a bomb threat.

As a rule, when responding to a bomb threat, ICE isn’t the first law enforcement agency that comes to mind — what are they going to do, detain the bomb for weeks in squalid conditions before deporting it to a country it’s never been to before? — but the DHS secretary appears to have a different perspective.

I have a hunch we haven’t heard the last of this one. Watch this space.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

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