Democrats sue Trump administration over threats to deploy federal agents to polls

Democratic Party leadership and campaign organizations sued the Trump administration Wednesday over alleged threats to unlawfully deploy armed federal agents to polling sites during the midterm elections.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, accuses Trump administration law enforcement and immigration officials of demonstrating “by word and deed that they have established a policy of permitting their armed officers to appear at active polling sites.”

The plaintiffs in the case include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y) as well as the Democratic campaign committees for both chambers of Congress and the Democratic Governors Association.

The Trump administration has stated that it does not have formal plans to send federal agents to the polls this November but has not ruled the possibility out.

But in February, President Trump’s call to “ nationalize the voting ” raised alarm from Democrats.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs cited Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s comments during a Sept. 1 press conference, in which the secretary said “the only reason” federal agents would be at a polling place is to respond to a threat or serve a warrant.

“DHS’s most recent statements confirm the existence of an agency policy that authorizes sending ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officers to polling locations, so long as the agency either identifies a supposed ‘threat,’ is seeking to serve a warrant, or is engaged in routine immigration enforcement activities,” the attorneys wrote in their filing.

Additionally, attorneys for the Democratic plaintiffs pointed to FBI Director Kash Patel’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, in which Democrats on the panel pushed the director to commit to not sending FBI agents to the polls this November.

In response to a question from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Patel said the agency would “follow the law.”

“If there’s a reason to go there because there’s been a violation of law, we will,” he said. “Otherwise, we won’t.”

The Democrats pointed to examples of federal agents entering polling places during primary and runoff elections this midterm cycle.

In one instance cited in the filing from June, several ICE officers confronted an election worker at a polling location in Syracuse, N.Y., about her online criticism of the federal agency.

The Hill has reached out to the Justice Department, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.