Signs in English and Spanish direct voters to the polls at the Salt Lake County Government Center in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
WASHINGTON â A coalition of civil rights groups and union organizations Friday sued the Trump administration to prevent the deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to polling locations during Novemberâs midterm elections.
The suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is the second this month, following comments from top Trump officials citing a federal policy to allow ICE officers to enter polling locations in certain circumstances to conduct immigration enforcement.
The groups argue the policy violates the federal law that prohibits âarmed menâ at election sites, and also causes voter intimidation, which is barred under the Voting Rights Act.
Under federal law, âtroopsâ or âarmed menâ are allowed at polling locations only if âsuch force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.â And the section of the Voting Rights Act the groups cite prohibits âintimidation,â âthreats,â or âcoercionâ against a person for voting or attempting to vote.
âThe result is predictable: voters across the countryâparticularly Black, Latino, and Asian voters, naturalized citizens, and members of mixed-status familiesâare afraid to vote, help others vote, and participate in civic life,â according to the suit.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin earlier this month noted that agents could conduct immigration enforcement at polling places. And before U.S. senators this week, FBI Director Kash Patel did not rule out sending FBI agents to polling locations, but said officers would âfollow the law.â
The Department of Justice dismissed the idea that officers would be sent to polling locations.
âThe DOJ has never said it would send federal law enforcement to polling locations,â a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement to States Newsroom. âAny suggestion otherwise is fearmongering.â
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to States Newsroomâs requests for comment Friday.
âWe reject this administrationâs attempt to desecrate our polling sites by converting them into militarized zones through the unlawful deployment of ICE or any other federal agent,” Kristen Clarke, the NAACPâs general counsel, said in a statement.
NAACP is one of nine groups that filed suit. The rest are Mi Familia en Accion, Asian Pacific American Advocates, the National Urban League, Minnesota 8, the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of Teachers, the International Union of Painters and the United Food and Commercial Workers International.
âTurning the fundamental right of exercising our vote into a high-stakes encounter with the militarized strong arm of the current administration isn’t protection and it isn’t oversight; it’s disenfranchisement, period,â Clarke said. âThe NAACP calls on the court to reject this blatant attempt by federal officials to obstruct our elections through tactics pulled straight from the Jim Crow playbook.”
The nine groups are represented by the Legal Defense Fund, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, the National Immigration Law Center, Protect Democracy and the Democracy Defenders Fund.
Source: Washington State Standard
This article was originally published by Washington State Standard.
