DHS official says immigration agents will not be at polling locations during midterms

A Department of Homeland Security official told state election officials Wednesday that federal immigration officers will not be stationed at polling places during the November midterm elections as some Democrats warn that the Trump administration may try to interfere with the election through intimidation or racial profiling.

Heather Honey, DHS’s assistant secretary for election integrity, told secretaries of state during a call that “any suggestion that ICE would be present at any polling place is simply untrue,” according to Arizona’s Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.

Honey, a spokesman for Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read and a Democrat himself, said he likewise assured officials that immigration agents would not be stationed at polling places. Republican Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams also reported in X that DHS “confirmed to Secretaries of State that ICE agents will not be at polling places this year.”

Honey, who has previously supported claims that President Donald Trump won the 2020 election against former President Joe Biden, joined the call that also included representatives from the FBI, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the Postal Service and other federal agencies to discuss coordination ahead of the midterms.

Fox News Digital has reached out to DHS for comment.

This comes as some Democrats have raised concerns that immigration officers could be stationed at polling places to intimidate Americans who fear they could be racially profiled and targeted if they show up to vote.

“I’m talking about something that I think would be extraordinary in American history, ICE agents in uniform and masks surrounding polling places,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said at a recent congressional hearing. “And this is not a fantasy and it’s not made up. We need to be open-minded about this. These are things that the president and his cabinet are proposing.”

The Justice Department files lawsuits demanding detailed voter data, but the department does not publicly disclose its specific reasoning for each request.

Trump also renewed his claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election; These allegations have been widely disputed and rejected by the courts, prompting calls for administration officials to investigate this election.

Democrats have expressed concerns that immigration agents could be stationed at polling places to intimidate American voters. (Paul Richards/AFP via Getty Images)

Earlier this month, the FBI executed a search warrant at an election office in Fulton County, Georgia, and seized ballots and other voting records from 2020, according to local officials. Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold, includes Atlanta. The Peach State went to Biden in 2020, but Trump carried the state in 2024.

Democratic officials and public interest advocates across the country have been concerned for months about the possibility of Trump interfering with midterm voting and ballot counting.

Democrats have noted Trump’s willingness to overturn his 2020 election loss, pardoning those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and packing his administration with allies who support his attempts to overturn his election defeat.

The U.S. Constitution confirms that states, not federal authorities, conduct elections. Most states have a Secretary of State who oversees elections.

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Democratic officials and public interest lawyers across the country have been concerned for months about the possibility of President Donald Trump interfering in the midterm elections. (Washington Post via Demetrius Freeman/Getty Images)

Democratic secretaries of state asked Honey several questions about the administration’s cuts to election security funding and efforts to eliminate noncitizen voting, which is already illegal and rare, as well as concerns about federal law enforcement coming to polling places, call participants said.

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The White House dismissed those concerns, saying there were no disruptions in last year’s elections, when Democrats performed well.

At a congressional hearing earlier this month, Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said they were not involved in any effort to patrol polling places.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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