FBI, ICE won’t contribute to poll monitoring: Justice Department

The Justice Department said Wednesday that agents and employees from the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will not serve as poll monitors in the upcoming midterm elections.

The department said in a court filing that employees from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Bureau ‌of ⁠Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will serve as poll monitors, but none from the FBI or ICE, according to a declaration filed Wednesday .

The filing comes after civil rights group NAACP filed a lawsuit to bar prosecutors and other law enforcement personnel from serving as election monitors.

According to the court filing, election monitors have been trained to not interfere in voting and to follow all rules of the assigned state or jurisdiction. Their primary role is to observe, ​take notes and interview willing voters outside polling places.

Additionally, the monitors will not be acting as law enforcement ​personnel while monitoring, and they are prohibited from carrying any firearms.

Earlier this year , the Department of Homeland Security said ICE officers would not be present in polling sites during the elections. In September, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said ICE officers won’t go to patrol or monitor polling stations but can be present “if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down,” The Guardian reported .

Citing Mullin’s remarks, the city of Denver filed a lawsuit to block ICE from going to voting sites. The filing argued that ordering federal officers to carry out detainments and serve warrants violated the “ troops at polls ” law, which imposes fines and potential jail time for federal officers being present at “any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.”