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Donald Trump’s secretary of Homeland Security recently suggested that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents could not only show up at polling places this November, but also make arrests on site. Newsweek has obtained internal ICE records showing nearly 150 agents are under internal investigation for alleged crimes ranging from sexual assault to drug smuggling. Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine hired a former member of a group known for helping to orchestrate the January 6 insurrection. And Republicans are charging Trump supporters almost $90,000 dollars for a photo with the president at next week’s midterm convention in Dallas.
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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin suggested to reporters that ICE agents could not only enter polling places this November, but also arrest people. He tried to walk it back by saying ICE “isn’t there to patrol the polling places,” But then he went on to justify them showing up anyway, saying if the DHS was serving a warrant they would go wherever the person they were tracking down was headed.
That second part is the key. It’s one thing to threaten sending agents to a polling place. But executing an arrest warrant on someone who happens to be voting is the exact kind of scenario federal law was written to prevent.
There’s an actual statute in place aimed at stopping armed federal agents from appearing at a polling place. Federal law makes it a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. The only exception is if those agents are there to repel an actual armed enemy of the United States. The Justice Department has interpreted this law to mean FBI agents can’t investigate at polling places on Election Day, and that deputy U.S. marshals can’t be stationed there because they’re armed.
Senate Democrats warned Mullin this summer that sending armed federal agents to polling places would be a direct violation of that law. And so far, senior Trump administration officials are refusing to rule out having ICE at the polls.
Aside from Mullin, Attorney General Todd Blanche has also declined to rule out sending federal agents to voting precincts. Before he became attorney general, Blanche balked at the prospect of people objecting to having ICE at polling places. He later told a reporter he wasn’t even sure why it was considered a risk for Border Patrol or ICE to be at polling places.
When Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota asked Mullin whether he understood why armed ICE agents at the polls might could be seen as a form of intimidation, Blanche said he wasn’t aware of any concern.
Republicans seem to be taking their cues from the administration. Maine’s GOP nominee for governor says he wants border czar Tom Homan to send both ICE agents and U.S. marshals to polling places. A Republican Senate candidate in Michigan proposed having retired police officers stand in as poll watchers who could flash a badge if they felt it was necessary.
Maine’s Democratic Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, observed that both U.S. Constitution and federal law prohibit ICE from being stationed at polling places, and said she won’t stand for what she called a lawless and reckless suggestion. More state election officials need to take after her and be ready for Trump’s DHS this November.
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Newsweek obtained internal ICE records through a Freedom of Information request, and the numbers suggest a deep moral rot within the agency. There are currently 148 open allegations against ICE agents from the last three fiscal years, covering both the Joe Biden and Donald Trump administrations. The allegations include various serious crimes including alleged sexual assault, bribery, domestic violence, drunk driving and even drug smuggling. There are also ten incidents involving agents firing their service weapons, five of which resulted in either death or serious injuries.
Barack Obama’s former acting director of ICE director told the outlet that the raw numbers don’t necessarily mean misconduct is getting worse, but said the fact that many of these cases are still open is most worrisome. That suggests ICE may not actually be resolving these investigations, but rather just letting them sit while these alleged criminals roam the streets with a badge, a gun and a green light from the federal government to act with impunity.
All of this comes as ICE has seen its ranks swell from roughly 10,000 agents to approximately 22,000 in less than a year, and as its agents have been linked to a string of high-profile deaths, including deadly shootings in Minneapolis, Minnesota; South Padre Island; Houston, Texas and Biddeford, Maine.
Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who is the ranking member of the House Homeland Security, said he’s deeply disturbed by the rise in criminal allegations against ICE agents, and noted the current Republican-controlled Congress has shown no interest in conducting any oversight of the agency. Democratic Congressman Seth Magaziner of Massachusetts said the lack of discipline is a clear message to ICE agents that the administration won’t hold them accountable no matter how violent they are.
Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine is having a pretty rough stretch as she battles in a tight reelection race for a sixth six-year term.
Collins is still reeling from the fallout of a new report about her campaign has taken significant amounts of money from donors linked to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s network. She’s also been dogged with criticism after her campaign sent emails to supporters hitting them up for gas money. Now, she has a new headache.
The Daily Beast is reporting that Wayne Erkkinen, her hand-picked town chair in Greenville, was a member of the Oath Keepers. You may remember that group as one of the ket organizers of the January 6th attack on the Capitol that resulted in several police officers losing their lives, and hundreds of others injured by Trump supporters trying to violently overturn a lawful election.
Erkkinen said he joined the Oath Keepers in 2010, thinking it was a group for military veterans and members of the law enforcement community. He added that he left the group several years before January 6th. That may well be true. But it could also be argued that Collins is posturing as a moderate while being surrounded and advised by some of Donald Trump’s most extreme supporters. In a year widely viewed to be a banner year for Democrats, this is one more fire Collins now has to extinguish.
The Republican National Committee is holding its midterm convention in Dallas next week, and the price tags for access to Donald Trump will raise your eyebrows.
A roundtable with the president on September 9th will run donors a $250,000 per person. Want a photo with him instead? That’ll run you $88,600. Vice President JD Vance’s roundtable the next day costs $75,000 to attend, with photos with the vice president going for $35,000 a pop.
Republicans are hoping all of their star power will translate into more cash and momentum heading into November, especially in tight races like the Texas U.S. Senate race, where Democrat James Talarico has out-raised Republican Ken Paxton by tens of millions of dollars. Trump’s super PAC is sitting on more than $400 million, which some Republicans haven’t been shy about criticizing for failing to put real resources behind Paxton’s campaign.
The one big question no one in the GOP seems capable of answering is whether any of that of it can move the needle in a midterm election defined by widespread opposition to a deeply unpopular president, his ill-conceived new war in the Middle East and a cost-of-living crisis that no one in the Republican Party seems capable of solving.
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Almost no Americans have any confidence in the integrity of the federal government, according to a new Gallup poll. Between May and June, Gallup asked 1,000 Americans whether they believed corruption was widespread, finding 90 percent agreement. 83 percent of self-identified Republicans answered affirmatively, along with 90 percent of independents and 91 percent of Democrats. That 90 percent figure is a two-decade high, with previous surveys finding roughly 72 to 73 percent of respondents believing government corruption was widespread.90% of Americans Say Government Corruption Is Widespread.Several groups preparing for the Trump administration to potentially deploy armed federal agents to polling places in violation of longstanding federal law are already organizing to protect voters on Election Day. The National Action Network, the American Federation of Teachers and the Save America Movement have launched the “Vote Safe” initiative, which they describe as a nonpartisan effort to have trained community members present to monitor any efforts by federal authorities to intervene in the voting process. The groups are focusing their efforts in battleground states like Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio.Advocacy Groups Launch ‘Vote Safe’ Program to Counter Federal Agents at Polls.Even though Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature was one of several Southern states to carve up congressional redistricting maps earlier this year, Republicans are now reportedly pessimistic about ay potential political gain from the new maps. GOP consultants told Politico that while the had hoped to flip four Democratic-held congressional seats in their favor, there’s a possibility they may not only fail to flip any of those seats, but could potentially lose ground in the U.S. House of Representatives depending on voter turnout in November.Florida Republicans Fear Little to No Gain from Last-Minute Gerrymander.
