'They may be arrested': ICE makes startling admission on election monitoring operation

With millions of voters expected to descend to the polls Tuesday in a series of off-year elections, including in California where voters will vote on a constitutional amendment to redraw the state’s congressional districts, the Trump administration made a startling admission regarding how its poll monitors may operate on Election Day.

The Trump administration has deployed Justice Department officials to monitor elections in both California and New Jersey, citing allegations of election “irregularities” from Republican leadership in both states, a move that critics have labeled as blatant “voter intimidation.”

The New York Times reported Sunday that officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that while the agency would not target polling sites with immigration raids, there was one important caveat.

“If a dangerous criminal alien is near a polling location, they may be arrested as a result of that targeted enforcement action,” the statement read, as reported by the Times.

The DOJ plans to have staff from its Civil Rights Division stationed at polling sites – many of them in areas with significant Hispanic populations – purportedly to ensure compliance with federal voting laws. Officials in both states, however, have pushed back.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that the state would be deploying its observers to “monitor the monitors,” the Times reported, and New Jersey’s attorney general, Matt Platkin, called the deployment of federal monitors “highly inappropriate,” and also pledged to deploy its own observers to monitor for potential voter intimidation.

Concerns have also been raised about the effect the deployment of federal election monitors could have on the turnout of Hispanic voters. For many, however, the Trump administration’s tactics have only emboldened Hispanic voters to get out to the polls.

“Especially here in California, we need to speak up,” said Alo Hurtado, a Hispanic voter in California, who vowed to vote in person and not by mail out of fear of mail tampering, speaking with the Times.