DHS: No plans for ICE to be at polls for midterm elections

ICE officers have not received guidance telling them they need to do anything in addition to their regular duties on the day of November’s midterm elections, a senior Homeland Security official told NBC News.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said at a news conference Tuesday in New York that ICE officers will be at a polling place only if “there is a threat to that polling place” or if officers are serving a warrant on someone “that we have been actively tracking down.”

“ICE isn’t there to patrol the polling places,” Mullin said.

Asked whether ICE officers would enter polling places, Mullin said they would if they had warrants.

“If we’re serving a warrant, we will be where we need to be,” Mullin said.

President Donald Trump and Mullin have claimed without offering any evidence that there are over 250,000 noncitizens on voter rolls across several states. Mullin recently threatened state election officials with possible prison time if they didn’t comply with the administration’s methods to determine whether noncitizens were on their voter rolls. Several state officials have pushed back against sharing private state voter roll data that includes personal information, such as Social Security numbers.