On Tuesday, as Americans queued up at polling places across all states for the US midterm elections 2026, a notable absence was the sighting of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on the field.
A major point of contention in the first two years of Trump second term at White House, the immigration agents have been involved in several controversial enforcement operations, especially in Minnesota, California, Maine and New York. Trump even tried to portray them as a hallmark of his immigration agenda – a major pitch to voters before the 2024 elections.
But as polling takes place, the ICE agents are conspicuously absent from public view, let alone acting as election monitors.
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Why ICE agents are not acting as election monitors
Employees of multiple federal agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), are serving as monitors in the US midterms. But the ICE and the FBI agents have been barred from doing so by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). Additionally, the DOJ said that the monitors will not be performing any law enforcement function.
The DOJ ruling on October 28 came after NAACP, an organization advocating for racial justice, filed a petition seeking a bar on prosecutors and other law enforcement personnel from serving as elections monitors. It alleged that they could be used by the Trump administration to intimidate voters.
Back in September, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin had said that they would visit polling places only to serve a warrant. Notably, federal law prohibits “troops or armed men” at polling places where general or special elections are being held.
“The only reason why we would be at polling places, if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down,” Mullin said. “If we’re serving a warrant, we will be where we need to be.”
What ICE agents are up to on polling day
According to CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, internal communication within the ICE indicates that at least one field office has been informally told to not wear badges if they have to visit polling stations. Additionally, one official told CNN that there have been no discussions about being deployed at polling places.
“It hasn’t even been mentioned as an idea, like ‘we might be doing this.’ Nothing,” the official said.