Arizona Republicans push plan to require ICE agents at all polling places

Polling shows that Americans want to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the murders of two American citizens in Minnesota amid a violent surge to round up immigrants as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, but Arizona Republicans want to require ICE officers to be stationed at polling places this year.

This week, the Arizona Senate will take up a proposal to force all 15 of the state’s counties to sign an agreement with ICE “to provide for a federal immigration law enforcement presence at each location within this state where ballots are cast or deposited.”

The Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee is slated to take up the strike-everything amendment to Senate Bill 1570 either Wednesday or Friday. (The committee has scheduled nearly 60 bills for hearings over the two meetings, but it’s unknown which measures will be considered on which day. This is the final week for legislative committees to hear bills.)

Even if it passes, the proposal by Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, seems to directly run afoul of federal law, which bars “any troops or armed men” who are part of “the civil, military, or naval service of the United States” from being deployed to polling locations. The only exception is if doing so is needed to “repel armed enemies of the United States.”

The bill comes after a visit last week from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who stumped for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, more commonly known as the SAVE Act, and urged Congress to pass it. She also mentioned she had met with some Arizona officials to discuss elections.

The ICE-at-polling-places proposal also comes amid a clash between Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap, a Republican, and the GOP-controlled County Board of Supervisors over his refusal to answer questions under oath about his operations. Heap, who has embraced election denialism, touted use of a federal program that has been mistakenly flagging citizens as noncitizens.

Hoffman said requiring masked ICE agents at every polling site in Arizona will instill confidence in elections.

“The intent is to deter violations before they happen, ensure existing laws are followed, and protect the rights of every lawful voter,” Hoffman said in a press release. “Just as importantly, the legislation makes clear that voting cannot be disrupted and that no one may be targeted simply for participating in an election. When voters see the rules applied fairly and consistently, confidence in the outcome follows.”

But ICE has been empowered by the U.S. Supreme Court to racially profile people, and its weekslong surge into Minneapolis was marked by ICE agents demanding nonwhite people they encountered — even those simply walking down the street in their neighborhood — provide proof they are citizens and detaining those who couldn’t, or whose proof didn’t satisfy an agent.

In Arizona, where nearly half of the population is nonwhite — including one-third of residents who are Latino — stationing immigration agents outside of polling places where they could detain anyone who showed up to vote would likely result in some voters opting not to cast a ballot.

Voting by noncitizens is rare, and Arizona voters must provide documented proof of citizenship in order to register to vote, as well as show their ID at the polls before being given a ballot. There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Hoffman did not respond to a request for comment from the Arizona Mirror about his bill.

Alex Gulota, the state director for All Voting is Local Action, linked Hoffman’s bill to Noem’s comments last week that the Trump administration is working to ensure that only the “right people” cast ballots for the “right candidates.”

“This bill is driven by that same mentality. They want to militarize our polling places to create terror and fear because they know they cannot win fair and square,” he said.

Recent polling has shown that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe ICE has gone too far, with a record number of Republicans, 19%, now supporting abolishing the agency.

The White House has said it has no “formal plans” for ICE at polling locations this year, but the Trump administration notably has not ruled out doing so.

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