Some Democratic states to protect polling places

New Mexico becomes the first to bar armed agents in response to Trump crackdown.

- BY MORGAN LEE AND SUSAN HAIGH

Democrat-led states alarmed by the prospect of federal immigration officers patrolling the polls during this year's midterm elections are taking steps to counter what they see as a potential tactic to intimidate voters.

New Mexico this week became the first state to bar armed agents from polling locations in response to President Trump's immigration crackdown, a step being considered in at least half a dozen other Democrat-led states.

The moves highlight a deep distrust toward the Trump administration from blue states, which have been the target of his aggressive immigration tactics while threatened with military deployments and deep cuts in federal funding. Their concerns were heightened after the president suggested he wants to nationalize U.S. elections, even though the Constitution says it's the states that run elections.

The Trump administration said it has no plans to deploy immigration agents to polling locations. Last month, the heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol told a congressional committee "No, sir" when asked if they had any plans to guard polling places. The Department of Homeland Security's deputy assistant secretary for election integrity, Heather Honey, recently told secretaries of state it "is simply not true" that immigration agents will be at the polls this year.

But a group of eight secretaries of state wants that in writing from the nominee to succeed Kristi Noem as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. In a letter Monday to Trump's new pick to lead the agency, Markwayne Mullin, the group pressed for assurances "that ICE will not have a presence at polling locations during the 2026 election cycle."

Federal law already prohibits the deployment of armed federal forces to election locations unless "necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States," but Democratic lawmakers, election officials and governors remain concerned.