MaddowBlog-It's not just Bannon: Republican lawmakers want ICE agents at local voting precincts
“There’s no reason for us to deploy to a polling facility,” the acting head of ICE said. Some GOP officials want to see it happen anyway.
#Republicans the #fascist party in the #USA It’s not just #Bannon: Republican lawmakers want #ICE agents at local voting precincts www.ms.now/rachel-maddo... #EVIL has taken over in te #US under #Trump stealing the #midterms #elections the world has to unite a against Trumps's America. #ASAP
— Pi-Qui Djinn Djinni (@pi-qui.bsky.social) 2026-02-13T21:43:48.345Z
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/its-not-just-bannon-republican-lawmakers-want-ice-agents-at-local-voting-precincts
That said, it wasn’t long before his idea gained favor among Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Jason Smith: "Why should you ban ICE from being at polling places? Illegals are not supposed to vote in America. It does not make sense."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-12T13:26:12.197Z
For example, Rep. Jason Smith, who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, appeared on CNBC and said, “Why should you ban ICE from being at polling places? Because illegals aren’t supposed to vote in this America.”
The Missouri Republican said he believes that prohibiting ICE agents from patrolling local voting precincts “does not make sense.”
Around the same time, Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah asked by way of social media: “If noncitizens don’t vote, then why are Democrats worried about ICE agents going anywhere near a polling location?”
If these GOP lawmakers are genuinely confused, I think I can help.
Only American citizens can register to vote and cast ballots in federal elections. Republicans have spent years trying to find evidence of a national crisis of noncitizens voting, but the party has so far come up empty, chasing a mirage....
There’s no great mystery here. Too many on the right apparently want to create an environment of fear and intimidation, deploying federal immigration agents in the hopes that it might discourage voters from minority communities, fearing harassment and possible detention, from showing up and participating in their own country’s democracy.
SLOTKIN: Do you believe that ICE has the authority to be deployed to polling places?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-12T18:13:16.625Z
LYONS: There's no reason for it
S: So if the president says he needs you to go and physically deploy around polling places, you'll say no?
L: There's no reason for us to deploy, but we do investigate voter fraud
If lawmakers such as Smith and Lee continue to find this confusing, they could take up the matter with Todd Lyons, the acting ICE chief, who testified at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing Thursday that he didn’t see the point of what some Republicans were proposing.
“There’s no reason for us to deploy to a polling facility,” he told Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan at the hearing.
To think that some might have a problem with this “does not make sense” is ridiculous.
