The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says it is not planning Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations targeting polling locations.
Popular Democracy Executive Director DaMareo Cooper laid out a list of grievances he said people should watch out for this election.
“You see gerrymandering happening in Tennessee,” Cooper told The States by The Center Square. “You see voter rolls, people getting purged off of voter rolls. You’re seeing the voting locations in Georgia being switched around or like limited or reducing the number of … opportunities for people to participate.”
Those where pre-election concerns he raised.
Another area Cooper raised was what he said was possible intimidation of voters if there’s a federal law enforcement presence at polling locations on election day.
“I’m not saying that we should not secure those places and they should be safe, but if you see ICE agents, … they do not serve an electoral function, but if you see ICE agents at voter locations, that is an intimidation topic,” Cooper said. “It’s not ICE’s job to enforce an election. Right? Like, that’s not their role.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement told The Center Square in an email “ICE is not planning operations targeting polling locations.”
“ICE conducts intelligence-driven targeted enforcement, and if an active public safety threat endangered a polling location, they may be arrested as a result of that targeted enforcement action,” the DHS spokesperson said.
To the role DHS plays in elections, the spokesperson said the agency is fulfilling its obligation to protect election infrastructure under existing statutory authority “so that our elections are fair, honest, and accurate.”
According to America.gov, the Help America Vote Act appropriated to states and territories $15 million in fiscal year 2025 from Election Assistance Commission grants. That’s down from $55 million in fiscal year 2024, and $75 million in fiscal years 2023 and 2022.
Other federal taxpayer funds that go to states includes election infrastructure related funding from the Homeland Security Grant Program, plus technical help from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Cooper said local law enforcement is sufficient to protect polling locations.
“I think local law enforcement has been securing elections for a hundred years in this country,” he said. “There’s no need for federal officers to be at those locations. Local law enforcement, state law enforcement have done a good job of securing elections.”
The DHS spokesperson further said, in addition to the U.S. Department of Justice, they “are laser focused on prosecuting and removing aliens who vote and preventing the dilution of the votes of U.S. citizens.”
“ONLY Americans should elect American leaders,” the spokesperson said.
Cooper criticized concerns about non-citizens voting in the election.
“When you hear them talking about immigrants or undocumented people voting, that is not a thing. Like, it’s point zero three percent probably across millions of voter registrations that that may be happening,” Cooper said. “But when you hear that, it is setting up a play for an election sabotage type of play.”
Ultimately, Cooper said his push is to ensure people have access to the polls.
“Letting people vote is – and having the right to go and vote and participate in the democracy, which is the core of a republic anyway – is that people get to vote to choose their representatives,” Cooper said. “Creating access for that should be open and always accessible for people who are allowed to do it.”
Cooper had advice for voters heading into the home stretch.
“They should be checking to make sure that they’re registered to vote,” he said. “They should make sure that their family members are registered to vote on their rolls. You could do that by calling your board of election.”
The election is Nov. 3. States across the country have already started early voting, and mail ballots are also already being sent out.
