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Homeland Security Secretary-designate Markwayne Mullin was challenged Wednesday over concerns that the Trump administration could position ICE agents near polling places this November.
The back-and-forth with Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., comes amid warnings from some on the right that many blue states' election security policies are potentially allowing illegal immigrants to cast ballots for races they are prohibited from participating in.
Illegal immigrants are allowed to vote in certain local elections, starting with Takoma Park, Maryland, in 1993, but are federally banned from voting for congressional and presidential candidates.
When asked by Slotkin whether the feds or the states run elections, Mullin cited the Constitution in responding that they are a state responsibility that includes some federal oversight.
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"So if you're talking about the SAVE America Act requiring you, which is within the Constitution, by the way… to be citizens of the United States, I don't think it's too much to ask somebody to prove they're a citizen of the U.S. to vote in a federal election," he said.
Slotkin said she was not inferring any controversy over the SAVE Act, which remains held up in the Senate, but instead was raising concerns about immigration enforcement activity on Election Day.
"If you are secretary of Homeland Security, do you feel you have the authority to put uniformed officers at polling locations in 2026?" she asked. Mullin replied he had discussed the subject with her in her office and confirmed he would only dispatch ICE if there was a "specific threat" and "not for intimidation."
Slotkin countered by questioning the type of threat that could arise, adding that such agents were not dispatched during dangerous periods in history, like World War II or the War on Terror.
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Mullin said he couldn't engage in hypotheticals other than to reiterate that if there was a threat to a group like the Jewish community - which Slotkin brought up in a previous exchange about the threat landscape - that the public would understand why DHS needed to be in a certain area.
"I think the reason you're here and not Kristi Noem is because Americans trust their local law enforcement now way more than they trust ICE. So I would just say, if we ever get to the point where you are being asked to put armed ICE officers at polling locations, we have lost the plot as a country," Slotkin said.
"And until I hear someone tell me that this man, President Trump, will actually allow us to have a free and fair election, there is zero trust here, and I cannot trust that he won't try and steal it."
With illegal immigrants ineligible to vote in federal and most state and municipal elections, conservatives have questioned why the idea of ICE at the polls is so controversial among Democrats, with some offering their own conjecture about potential "stealing."
Connecticut lawmakers are reportedly set to vote on a ban on enforcement activity within 250 feet of a polling place without a warrant in the Constitution State. Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., is looking to pass a similar nationwide ban, according to a post on his social media.
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New Mexico has already banned ICE from the proximity of polls, while federal law prohibits deployment of armed forces to such unless "necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States." Virginia is also considering a similar ban that also includes courthouse confines.
Connecticut state Rep. Matthew Blumenthal, D-Stamford, whose father Richard questioned Mullin at the U.S. Senate hearing, authored the 250-foot-ban bill and told the AP there is a fear that the Trump administration will "attempt to evoke a national emergency or execute some other deployment of federal agents or military troops in order to interfere with elections and intimidate voters."
However, some pro-Trump voices have called for ICE activity to prevent any potential nefarious voting.
Stephen Bannon, the former White House advisor, said on a February airing of his "War Room" program that "we're going to have ICE surround the polls in November."
"You've got to get around every poll and make sure only people with IDs, [those] actually registered to vote and people that are United States citizens vote in this election," he said, according to Politico.
