The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has undermined Donald Trump's midterm plan after saying there is no need to deploy agents for the election.
The president's former advisor, Steve Bannon, had previously suggested ICE agents should be manning polling booth centers. He said last week, "You're damn right we're gonna have ICE surround the polls come November." White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not rule out ICE's presence in the midterms.
She said, "I can't guarantee that an ICE agent won't be around a polling location in November … but what I can tell you is I haven't heard the president discuss any formal plans to put ICE outside of polling locations."
Speaking with progressive podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen, Democratic Party elections attorney Marc Elias analyzed what the statement from ICE head Todd Lyons would mean for Trump and the upcoming midterm elections.
"Obviously we do civil enforcement and criminal law enforcement," Lyons told the Senate Homeland Security Committee last week. "There's no reason for us to deploy to a polling station."
Elias, who specializes in voting rights, said, "He gave up the game, and then he stammered and stammered and stammered when asked what would happen if Donald Trump called to deploy ICE at the polls.
"He gave up the game in that he said the truth, there is no reason, no legitimate reason, why ICE would be at the polls or surrounding the polls or in proximity of the polls. Kudos to him for saying that, but don't sleep on the second half.
"There may be no reason, there may be no good reason, there may be no lawful reason, but that doesn't mean Donald Trump won't insist to Kristi Noem that it won't happen anyway."
Elias had previously threatened to sue the administration should ICE agents appear at polling locations during the midterm voting period. He said, "We are facing an existential threat to democracy right now. Steve Bannon didn't just say that there would be ICE in cities; what Steve Bannon said is that it would be ICE surrounding the polls.
"The images we saw in Minneapolis where they surrounded cars, where they surrounded peaceful protesters, where they surrounded US citizens, and we know in the tragic instances, what that meant for those individuals.
"Is it legal? No. It would be totally illegal. But honestly, look at the images we have seen ICE do. They're breaking all kinds of laws; they're breaking laws every single day.
"What, though, is going to stop this is not some law in a book on a dusty shelf, but it's going to stop because you and I are gonna call it out, everyone watching this is going to take this seriously."