{"id":14906,"date":"2026-09-18T19:42:55","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T19:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14906"},"modified":"2026-09-18T19:42:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T19:42:55","slug":"trump-administration-faces-second-lawsuit-to-block-ice-agents-at-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=14906","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration faces second lawsuit to block ICE agents at polls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Civil rights groups argue that federal law prohibits \u2018armed men\u2019 at election sites.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Ariana Figueroa<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, Stateline<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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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 November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suit <\/a>in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is the second this month<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The groups argue the policy violates the federal law<\/a> that prohibits \u201carmed men\u201d at election sites, and also causes voter intimidation, which is barred under the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under federal law, \u201ctroops\u201d or \u201carmed men\u201d are allowed at polling locations only if \u201csuch force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.\u201d And the section<\/a> of the Voting Rights Act the groups cite prohibits \u201cintimidation,\u201d \u201cthreats,\u201d or \u201ccoercion\u201d against a person for voting or attempting to vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe result is predictable: voters across the country\u2014particularly Black, Latino, and Asian voters, naturalized citizens, and members of mixed-status families\u2014are afraid to vote, help others vote, and participate in civic life,\u201d according to the suit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 <\/a>sending FBI agents to polling locations, but said officers would \u201cfollow the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Justice dismissed the idea that officers would be sent to polling locations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe DOJ has never said it would send federal law enforcement to polling locations,\u201d a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement to States Newsroom. \u201cAny suggestion otherwise is fearmongering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to States Newsroom\u2019s requests for comment Friday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe reject this administration\u2019s attempt to desecrate our polling sites by converting them into militarized zones through the unlawful deployment of ICE or any other federal agent,\u201d Kristen Clarke, the NAACP\u2019s general counsel, said in a statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTurning the fundamental right of exercising our vote into a high-stakes encounter with the militarized strong arm of the current administration isn\u2019t protection and it isn\u2019t oversight; it\u2019s disenfranchisement, period,\u201d Clarke said. \u201cThe 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.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> and the Democracy Defenders Fund. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Civil rights groups argue that federal law prohibits ‘armed men’ at election sites. By Ariana Figueroa, Stateline A coalition of civil rights groups and union organizations Friday sued the Trump administration to prevent the deployment […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,69],"tags":[94,80],"class_list":["post-14906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-slider","category-immigration","tag-2026-midterms","tag-immigration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14909,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14906\/revisions\/14909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}