A Department of Homeland Security official and election denier told a call of state election officials that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not show up at the polls during the 2026 midterm elections and anyone who says they will is spreading disinformation, according to two officials who were on the call.
Heather Honey, who backed President Donald Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election and has since been appointed to work on election security, was representing DHS on a Wednesday call organized by five executive branch agencies involved in protecting and monitoring elections. She made the statement in response to a question about the presence of ICE at the polls as an intimidating factor, per Arizona’s Democratic Secretary of State Adrien Fontes.
“She came out with a very strong statement and she acknowledged, flat out, that anybody saying that ICE would be at the polling places was spreading disinformation,” Fontes told HuffPost.
Many Trump allies have either called for ICE to show up at the polls or stated that there would be nothing wrong with it, raising concerns from advocates that ICE would be used to intimidate potential voters.
“You’re damn right we’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November,” former Trump advisor Steve Bannon said on his podcast on Feb. 4.
