❓ WHAT HAPPENED: Democratic district attorneys (DAs) from multiple major cities have announced plans to prosecute federal immigration agents who engage in so-called voter intimidation at polling sites during the November midterms, in response to President Donald J. Trump suggesting the deployment of federal forces to ensure election integrity. Illegal immigrants are not supposed to be able to vote, raising questions as to why voters in Democrat cities would be intimidated by their presence.
💬 KEY QUOTE: “A federal badge is not a license to violate the Constitution, and it is not a shield from state criminal law. We will prosecute ICE agents who break the law. There is no category of American who gets to operate above it.” – Larry Krasner, District Attorney for Philadelphia
🎯 IMPACT: The move by these district attorneys could lead to confrontations between state and federal authorities, potentially affecting the administration of elections and the presence of federal agents at polling places.
📰 DETAIL: The coalition, known as the Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach, includes district attorneys from Democrat-led cities such as Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Dallas. Their announcement follows President Trump’s refusal to rule out sending federal agents to polling places, a move Democrats fear could intimidate voters, with Mary Moriarty, County Attorney for Hennepin County, Minnesota, saying, “If ICE officers are dispatched to polling places in Hennepin County to frighten voters away from the ballot box, my office will investigate, and we will charge.”
👀 FLASHBACK: Legally, only U.S. citizens can vote in U.S. elections, but the Trump administration has long argued that inadequate vetting of voters, especially those who vote by mail, has been allowing non-citizens to vote regardless. While the Democrats have denied that illegal voting is an issue at scale, comments from DAs such as Moriarty suggesting ICE agents could “frighten voters away from the ballot box” imply that they know that some of the people attending polling sites could be illegal aliens. Research suggests that non-citizens do vote in sufficient numbers to change election results, and that they tend to favor the Democrats. Notably, Democrat politicians have consistently opposed election integrity legislation such as the SAVE Act, requiring voter ID, despite a majority of voters across all ethnicities and party affiliations supporting it.
