ICE should have no role in Georgia elections. There is a role for each of us.
Most of my community members are worried about encountering U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the polls, and I can’t blame them because of what we’ve seen take place at the ballot box this year.
When the Trump administration threatens to deploy ICE agents near polling locations leading up to Election Day, immigrants become afraid to leave their homes to vote. When people are intimidated out of voting, democracy is under threat.
Authoritarianism is on the rise and on the ballot as the Trump administration spreads disinformation, refuses international poll monitors and encourages states to purge voter rolls.
There is no role for ICE in our elections. For years, ICE has been harassing our neighbors at their doorsteps, threatening our colleagues at their workplaces and gunning us down in the streets.
I know firsthand that the threat of ICE near polling locations will likely cause lower voter turnout in immigrant communities across Georgia.
Nearly 1 in 10 registered voters are immigrants. Whether it is a newly naturalized citizen casting their first vote or a young person coming from a mixed-status family, eligible voters will stay home if they hear that ICE may be waiting at the polls.
Trump officials and allies have called for deploying ICE
Federal law prohibits “armed men” at voting locations, and this is not the first time our country has faced the threat of state-backed armed forces at the polls. During the final months of the Civil War, Congress passed legislation barring military and federal agents from polling sites “to prescribe or fix … the qualifications of voters” or “to interfere with the freedom of any election in any state …”
During Jim Crow, the police were sent to intimidate people of color from casting their ballots even though the Constitution protected their right to vote. These were some of the darkest times in our nation’s democracy, and we are witnessing a similar version of events today.
We know ICE’s presence anywhere creates volatility and violence where agents are able to assault, shoot at, and even kill us. ICE has free rein to target people based on their race, language, or occupation.
Through dozens of 287(g) agreements between federal and local law enforcement offices in Georgia, we have seen how construction vans and work trucks are often singled out in traffic stops by local police and then handed over to ICE.
The crime? Driving while Latino. Now, ICE is hindering us from participating in our democracy. Even the mere threat of ICE near polling sites is a form of voter intimidation prohibited by the Voting Rights Act.
In spite of it being illegal, the Trump administration — from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to President Donald Trump himself — has continuously told the public it is an option. Former White House strategist Steve Bannon earlier this year said, “We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November.”
The administration’s failure to deny such claims and reassure voters of free, fair, and safe elections demonstrates a systemic attempt to engage in voter intimidation.
How immigrant activists will be protecting voters
ICE does not discriminate between a citizen and a noncitizen. They have violently arrested and killed U.S. citizens. Their presence at the polls does not make any of us safer. How can any of us feel secure voting when there are masked men holding guns, staring at us on the way to the polls?
According to data from the Cato Institute and the Brennan Center, noncitizen voting is nonexistent, yet this administration has obsessed over a 0.0001% possible threat. As President Trump pushes for proof of citizenship to vote and for implementation of legislation like the SAVE America Act, eligible voters are being purged from voter rolls, and more than 200 polling locations have closed across Georgia.
Democratic backsliding is not a seismic event; it’s a gradual chipping away at our freedoms and our values. It’s targeting elected officials, doxing student activists and extrajudicial killings by state agents in the streets. It’s disregarding judicial orders against deportations. It’s threatening voters with the possibility of ICE presence near polling sites.
As Election Day nears, Migrant Equity SouthEast will be canvassing, phone banking, text banking and tabling events to reach thousands of immigrant voters across Coastal Georgia and ensure they are ready to vote.
Volunteers can sign up to support immigrant voter outreach and election protection efforts at migrantequity.org. Any ICE activity near the polls can be reported to 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) (English) or 866-VE-Y-VOTA (888-839-8682) (Spanish). There is no role for ICE in our democracy — and especially not in our elections — but there is a role for each of us.
Jenny Miron was born and raised in Georgia’s Wayne County to Mexican immigrant parents and is Migrant Equity SouthEast’s (MESE) labor rights organizer.
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