The NAACP filed a lawsuit on Sept. 18 asking a judge to prevent the Trump administration from deploying federal agents to polling places in November.
The plaintiffs suing a group of agencies and officials – including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Justice and the FBI – allege that sending federal agents to the polls violates the Voting Rights Act because it is an intimidation tactic. The groups say it will result in "voters across the country–particularly Black, Latino, and Asian voters, naturalized citizens, and members of mixed-status families–are afraid to vote, help others vote, and participate in civic life."
The filing comes after months of federal agents being deployed during
primary elections to monitor polls, as recent as earlier in September during the New Hampshire primaries. President Donald Trump has defended his administration's efforts to ensure fair elections and security, and as recent as Sept. 18, Trump continued to claim that he won the 2020 election, in a Truth Social post saying this is third term. In February, USA TODAY reported that the White House said it did not plan to send ICE to polling sites during the midterms.
"Defendants’ past and present actions indicate that they plan to engage in such conduct to attempt to intimidate, or that results in intimidation of, voters in connection with upcoming 2026 elections if they are not enjoined from doing so," the NAACP wrote in the filing.
Trump told reporters in May that he "would do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections" when asked if he would consider sending ICE and the National Guard to polls in November. In July, a group of Democratic senators sent a letter to Trump administration officials to ask if they planned to send federal agents or National Guard to monitor midterm polls.
The National Urban League and American Federation of Teachers are among the plaintiffs in the suit that additionally names DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, acting ICE Director David Venturella, Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and Trump's border czar Tom Homan as defendants. The government did not submit their response to the court before this article was published.
"Congress did not create DHS to oversee elections or determine who is eligible to vote," the NAACP and group of plaintiffs wrote.
Patel testified before Congress' Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 15, and election monitoring was among the various issues he was pressed about by lawmakers. The FBI director would not rule out agents being deployed to polling sites in November.
"If there's a reason to go there because there's been a violation of law, we will, otherwise, we won't," Patel told Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal after explaining that the agency has election-specific crisis coordinators at all of its field offices. He later defended that statement to Democratic Sen. Peter Welch, saying "election integrity is of paramount importance. This FBI is not going to not shy away."
In his confirmation hearing on July 15 before the same committee, Blanche, who leads the Department of Justice, was also pressed on if he would commit to not sending federal agents to polling locations. He said he would "absolutely follow the law no matter what it includes" but did not agree to Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar's characterization of deployments as illegal. Blanche added that he was "not aware of armed agents being at polling places."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NAACP sues ICE, DHS, FBI to prevent sending agents to midterm polls
