A Donald Trump appointee at the Department of Homeland Security instructed state election officials from across the nation Wednesday that federal immigration brokers won’t be deployed to polling places throughout the 2026 midterms, in line with a number of sources on the decision.
The feedback, made by DHS official Heather Honey throughout an hour-long cellphone name organized between secretaries of state and officials at numerous federal workplaces, come after immigration enforcement surges in Minneapolis and elsewhere prompted growing worry amongst election officials that ICE brokers might be used to intimidate voters.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” one supply on the decision mentioned of Honey’s pledge that ICE won’t be at polling places this November.
Responding to questions from NCS, a DHS official mentioned in an announcement, “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.”
Other remarks by Honey, who has deep ties to the election denial community that challenged Trump’s 2020 defeat, involved Democratic election officials on the decision, sources on the decision instructed NCS.
There was silence from federal officials when Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows requested that they make a public assertion affirming state sovereignty over election administration. Trump has continued to name for extra federal management, together with controversial comments final month that Republicans ought to “nationalize the voting.”
Democrats have been additionally pissed off how Honey, in line with sources on the decision, dealt with a dialogue of a system of immigration knowledge referred to as SAVE that the administration is urging states to make use of to seek out non-citizens on their voter rolls, though the system is thought to be rife with false positives. After Honey spoke at size to encourage the states to vet their voter rolls with SAVE, Honey struggled with questions on how lengthy the federal authorities retained voter registration knowledge that states enter into the system.
Bellows instructed reporters after the decision that she appreciated the federal authorities reminding election administration offiicals what function it does must play in elections – resembling investigating threats towards election officials.
“What wasn’t reassuring was political statements by political appointees from the Trump administration … urging the states to particulate in the faulty SAVE system,” Bellows mentioned.
The name, held by officials from the Justice Department, FBI, DHS and the Election Assistance Commission, was an opportunity for federal and state election officials to share data on election administration and safety procedures forward of the midterms. It is often a routine gathering that has occurred quite a few occasions since 2016, when Russia’s efforts to affect that election prompted the federal authorities to step up safety help to states.
But the Trump administration’s appointment of political officials at DHS, the Justice Department and the White House who’ve questioned the outcomes of the 2020 election that Trump misplaced has made some election officials wary of outreach from the administration.
Other sources mentioned the federal authorities was gradual in its outreach to election officials.
“If this call was to help prepare election officials for the coming elections, statewide primaries start next week, so this is a strange time for the feds to introduce themselves,” one supply on the decision mentioned. “Election officials have been preparing for the 2026 elections since December 2024 – where have the feds been for the last 15 months?”