Homeland Security chief says ICE could be deployed to voting sites

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters in New York that ICE officers could be placed at polling stations, but only to respond to a concrete threat or to execute a warrant. He emphasized that ICE’s primary role remains immigration and customs enforcement, not election patrols. The comment follows months of warnings from Democrats and voting-rights advocates that the Trump administration might deploy federal agents to deter voters before the upcoming midterm elections, a scenario the White House has tried to downplay.

The department issued a statement saying ICE does not have operations aimed at polling locations and would act only on targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement. In a related development, the joint chiefs of staff, in a letter to Senator Elissa Slotkin, confirmed that neither the U.S. military nor the National Guard plans to be stationed at voting sites for the 2026 elections. The remarks come after Mullin previously threatened to withhold federal aid from states that did not comply with his election-security directives.