Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not be deploying officers to enforce immigration laws at polling sites during the 2026 midterm elections, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
During a meeting with secretaries of state from across the country on Wednesday, DHS officials told the elections officials that ICE would not be at voting locations, Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams said in a statement. Adams said the private call echoed meetings routinely held by federal officials with state leaders on election administration and security procedures.
Heather Honey, the assistant homeland security secretary for election integrity, made the assurance about ICE during the call, according to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber.
“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,” a DHS official said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
A participant on the call told NPR that Honey said, “Any suggestion that ICE is going to be present at polling places is simply disinformation,” and reassured election officials that “there will be no ICE presence at polling locations.”
The development comes after Democrats such as Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) expressed concern about ICE being deployed to election sites following comments from Steve Bannon, who supported the idea. The former Trump adviser said on his podcast earlier this month that the administration should send ICE agents to voting locations to prevent illegal immigrants from voting.
“We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November,” Bannon said. “We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again.”
Warner suggested controversial tactics used in two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens during ICE-related operations in Minnesota lent credence to the idea that the government could be weaponized against polling centers.
“The idea that the president might send some part of the federal government, like ICE, into patrol, and suddenly people are saying, ‘Well, we want to make sure that nobody undocumented shows up at any polling station,’” the senator said. “Again, pre-Minneapolis occupation, that didn’t ring as true as it potentially rings true right now.”
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When pressed on Bannon’s comments, the White House sought to dismiss concerns about ICE being deployed to polling sites.
“That’s not something I’ve ever heard the president consider, no,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a Feb. 5 media briefing. “I can’t guarantee that an ICE agent won’t be around a polling location in November. I mean, that’s frankly a very silly hypothetical question. But what I can tell you is I haven’t heard the president discuss any formal plans to put ICE outside of polling locations.”
