U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's presence at voting stations in the midterm elections would be illegal and could lead to the president being sued, an elections attorney has warned.
Marc Elias, in an appearance on Brian Tyler Cohen's podcast, urged people to take note of Steve Bannon's comments on ICE agents being present at ballot boxes across the country. Bannon said, "You can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen."
The inference to ICE activity at the polls in November was denounced by Elias, who said, "Anyone who watches that clip and does not have shivers go down their spine, I don't know what to tell them.
"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 protestors, where they surrounded US citizens, and we know in the tragic instances, what that meant for those individuals."
Elias went on to describe Bannon as the "spiritual leader of MAGA" who "gives Donald Trump some of his worst ideas." One such idea appears to be the ICE agents making their presence known on election day.
The Dem lawmaker added, "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."
Elias also added that there would be a movement in the courts against ICE's presence at polling booths. "When I say we're going to sue, we sue, and we usually win," he added. "Donald Trump and his cronies know that because after the 2020 election, I beat him and his team more than 60 times in court, and we'll do everything we can do this time to make sure we have free and fair elections."