City Of Denver, Latino Civil Rights Groups Sue To Block Trump Admin From Sending ICE To Polling Sites

On Thursday, the City of Denver, two major Latino civil rights organizations, and a voting rights group filed a lawsuit to block the Trump administration from allowing armed federal immigration agents to serve warrants at polling sites, or patrol said sites at all, for that matter.

According to the Washington Post, the suit was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., and it’s largely a response to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin saying that while his department “is not planning operations targeting polling locations,”  people could be arrested at a polling place “if there is a threat to that polling place, or we’re serving a warrant.” The lawsuit — filed on behalf of the League of United Latin American Citizens, UnidosUS, Common Cause and the city and county of Denver — asks a judge to declare it unlawful for the administration to send armed agents to polling sites for any reason.

“The presence of federal force at the polls interferes with the smooth administration of elections at the local level,” the lawsuit states. “It disrupts voting and makes it more difficult for state and local election officials and law enforcement to do their jobs by making polling places spaces of confrontation.”

As the New York Times noted, Mullin and others have accused Democrats of “fearmongering” about ICE agents showing up at the polls or patrolling polling precincts, but even if that were true, those Democrats wouldn’t have had much trouble instilling that fear since their friends across the political aisle have spent the last year or so suggesting that federal agents be sent to the polls, or musing that, if they did, it shouldn’t be a problem.

From the Post:

The lawsuit cites a year of public comments by Trump administration officials and allies. In February, former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon said, “We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November.” Days later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters she “can’t guarantee that an ICE agent won’t be around a polling location.” And in March, then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is now attorney general, asked at a conservative gathering, “Why is there objection to sending ICE officers to polling places?”

Mullin also said this during his confirmation hearing: “I don’t understand what the concern is about enforcement of immigration at polling places anyways because honestly if you’re not a citizen you shouldn’t be voting anyways so technically there shouldn’t be illegals at the polling spot.”

But see, that’s the thing: research has consistently shown that non-citizens are not voting in U.S. elections, just as research has consistently shown that U.S. elections are fair and secure. But none of that has stopped President Donald Trump and his allies from pushing non-stop propaganda that undocumented migrants and other non-citizens are, indeed, voting, and that elections are regularly rigged by the opposition.

And those same people are now expecting us to take it at face value that they won’t send the feds to the polls, all while arguing that if they did, it shouldn’t be a problem. So, yeah, maybe the plaintiffs in this suit have a point.

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