A coalition of 9 organizations filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s Administration to stop threats of intervention by armed agents in voting centers in the midterm elections in November.
The complaint, filed in federal court in the District of Columbia (Washington), includes the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Justice and their respective directors.
With this legal action, the organizations seek to protect and strengthen the freedom to vote, “contributing to ensuring that all communities can fully participate in our democracy with confidence,” says a joint statement from the groups.
They also indicate that in the lawsuit they document how the federal government has claimed authority for armed agents to operate in the vicinity of voting centers, “has dismantled the agencies’ internal safeguards against electoral interference and has made unprecedented attempts to impose executive power over the administration of the elections.”
They assure that with these actions the result “is predictable”: voters across the country, especially African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, immigrants and naturalized citizens, as well as voters from families with mixed immigration status, will fear being questioned, arrested, under surveillance or suffering the use of force.
Although Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin has said that there will be no presence of agents at voting centers – which is prohibited by federal law – he also did not rule out them if it were necessary to execute an arrest warrant or there was a threat against a polling place.
For his part, FBI Director Kash Patel also left open the possibility of sending federal agents during a hearing this month in the Senate to ensure “the integrity of the electoral process.”
These threats, they say, undermine public trust and deter voters from exercising their right to vote, which is why they ask the court to prohibit the use of law enforcement in or around voting centers.
The plaintiffs recalled that in the last year the federal government has also repeatedly “evaded or ignored” the law when carrying out arrests, investigations and immigration control actions.
The legal action was brought by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Mi Familia en Acción, Asian Pacific American Advocates, the National Urban League, Minnesota 8, the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of Teachers, the International Union of Painters and the International Union of Food and Commercial Workers.
