Noem won’t rule out ICE agents at polls

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told lawmakers Tuesday that her agency currently had “no plans” to station immigration officers at voting locations this November but refused to explicitly rule out the possibility that they could deploy to the polls.

In recent months, President Donald Trump’s close allies have called on him to send U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to the polls during this year’s midterms, when they allege — falsely — that Democrats will use undocumented immigrants to steal the election.

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While he has not explicitly backed the tactic, Trump himself has vowed to take extreme measures to seize control of elections, including attempting to mandate restrictive voting requirements through an executive order.

Noem’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday went against recent messaging from the Trump administration, including from officials who work directly under her.

During the hearing, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) asked Noem to definitively state that DHS would not send Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents or other law enforcement officers to the polls.

In response, Noem said, “There are no plans to have ICE officers at our polling locations.”

“I’m glad to hear that, but would you rule it out?” Coons replied, noting that she didn’t answer his question. “Would you say that it will not happen?”

“Do you plan on illegal aliens voting in our elections, senator?” Noem responded, growing frustrated. “There should be no need to, unless you plan on illegals voting.”

“I’m concerned about your rebuttal,” Coons said.

Later in the hearing, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) directly asked Noem whether she would refuse orders from Trump or Stephen Miller, the president’s homeland security adviser, to send DHS officers to voting sites.

Noem again repeated that DHS currently had no plans unless Democrats planned “on facilitating illegal aliens voting in our elections.”

“Are you planning on sending illegal aliens to vote?” Noem asked.

“No, that’s already illegal and extremely rare,” Padilla noted.

Padilla previously included an explicit ban on using federal law enforcement and the military to patrol the polls in the DHS funding bill currently being debated in Congress.

Noem’s comments contradicted what other Trump officials, including those in the DHS, told state election chiefs in a private meeting last week.

During the phone call, officials from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Elections Assistance Commission and Heather Honey, a senior “election integrity” official in DHS, told state authorities that the Trump administration would not dispatch ICE agents — or any other armed federal agents — to polling places this year.

Noem’s comments also go against federal law, which expressly bars the stationing of law enforcement officers or members of the military at polling places.

Todd Lyons, the acting chief of ICE, told senators in a hearing last month that immigration officials would have “no reason” to be at voting locations. However, like Noem, he didn’t definitively rule out the possibility.

During the hearing, Noem came under sharp scrutiny for DHS’ handling of mass protests against the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policy and immigration agents’ killing of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked Noem if she regretted calling Alex Pretti, one of the two Americans who was killed, a domestic terrorist.

Under withering questioning by the senator, Noem refused to admit she was wrong.

“We were relying, in the hours after the incident that was so horrific, on information we were getting on the ground from our agents,” Noem said.

“I did not call him a ‘domestic terrorist’; I said, ‘It appears to be an incident of’” domestic terrorism, she added.