Fontes: DHS promised no ICE at polls, but 'I'm not relieved at all' | Arizona Mirror

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Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson looks on as Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes speaks during a House Administration Committee hearing in the Longworth House Office Building at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 11, 2024 in Washington, D.C. The hearing examined “American Confidence in Elections” while looking forward to the 2024 presidential election in just under two months. (Photo by Bonnie Cash/Getty Images)

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes still has lingering questions and concerns after a call with the Federal Bureau of Investigations on Wednesday in which the agency invited election officials from across the country to discuss the upcoming midterm elections.

The meeting included election officials from across the country, who were joined by representatives from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Election Assistance Commission. The Arizona Mirror reviewed a copy of the email sent to election officials.

The invitation for the meeting was sent a week before DHS Secretary Kristi Noem visited Arizona and after President Donald Trump had made comments calling for Republicans to nationalize elections.

In a phone interview with the Mirror after the call, Fontes said that DHS officials were adamant that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would not be at polling locations.

“The bright line was that the Department of Homeland Security was very clear that any suggestion that ICE would be present at polling places was not true,” Fontes said

Still, the Democratic secretary of state said he wasn’t totally reassured.

“I’m not relieved at all, because the guarantee that there would be no ICE at polling places came from Heather Honey, so I’m not sure we can depend on that,” Fontes said.

Honey is an election denier who was appointed to a senior role in DHS overseeing the nation’s election infrastructure. Her mentor is Cleta Mitchell, who has been involved in a number of failed court cases attempting to overturn Trump’s election losses.

The White House has said it has no “formal plans” for ICE at polling locations this year, but the Trump administration notably has not ruled out doing so.

“I want them to walk the talk,” Fontes said. “I want my serious questions that have been lingering for almost a year answered.”

Fontes, along with secretaries of state in nine other states have asked DOJ and DHS for clarity on how voter data has been used. The Justice Department initially said the data would be used to evaluate state compliance with federal voter laws but later acknowledged that it shared the data with DHS to search for noncitizens on voter rolls.

Arizona is one of more than 20 states that the Trump administration is suing for fully unredacted voter roll data. Fontes has continued to push back against it citing the Privacy Act of 1974 which was also cited in court cases challenging the Department of Government Efficiency. The Privacy Act of 1974 came out of the Watergate and COINTELPRO scandals.

Fontes also wrote to Trump a year ago after federal cybersecurity officials that work with Arizona election officials were put on administrative leave.

He said that when DHS was directly asked if the U.S. Constitution says that states are in charge of their elections, the agency did not respond.

“The federal government is positioning themselves in an unconstitutional way, and that bothers me,” Fontes said.

Despite the concerns, Fontes said that, come November, Arizonans should know that local election officials will be ready and prepared to run an efficient election.

“Arizonans should know that Arizona is going to run a good election, despite attempts by the federal government to take elections over,” Fontes said, adding that all the counties have been working together. “As long as I’m the secretary of state, we are going to work together.”

Despite claims by Trump and his allies, there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud or malfeasance in the elections.

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