Anxiety over ICE
at the polls is a double-edged sword for the Trump administration: There’s the fear that federal immigration agents will illegally descend on voters, and there’s the threat that by boosting awareness of that fear, activists and journalists will help the federal government carry out the work of voter intimidation.
“Even just rumors of [ICE at the polls] are going to spread fear. That’s not what we want,” said Daniela Padilla, deputy director at Texas for All, a statewide coalition of organizations working on democracy and justice issues. “Even your reporting around, ‘We’re watching for ICE at the polls’ — it could scare voters.”
“The biggest threat that we face in Texas this year is voter suppression.”
In Texas, a 40 percent Latino state where a longtime Republican grip on power now finds itself in question, there are real concerns that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents could pop up in targeted communities to make people afraid to go out and vote on Tuesday. But while the
possibility
of
election interference
has been
discussed
as one of several “big ticket items” of this year’s midterms, Padilla said, “the biggest threat that we face in Texas this year is voter suppression.”
That suppression can take many forms. In Tarrant County, for example, where local officials closed 92 polling locations, reports from early voting indicated some election officials wrongly turned away eligible voters. More than fearing ICE would actually approach the polls, Padilla and several organizers working on election integrity and voting rights in Texas told The Intercept they were worried that journalists amplifying the Trump administration’s stated plans to “
surround the polls
” with ICE and federal agents could function as an inadvertent form of voter suppression.
Trump Vows to Send Election “Monitors” to Maine After Far-Right Conspiracies Spread
Federal and state law prohibits federal immigration agents from being inside
… [more]
