Voters Organize Watch as ICE Threat Hangs Over Polls

Dozens of volunteers patrol near early-voting sites in Columbus, Ohio, where Somali American and Latino residents have faced immigration enforcement and fear federal agents could return. Their job is to document and report ICE sightings, not interact with agents. “We teach people that they have to observe the behavior,” said Liliana Rivera Baiman, an organizer with 614 ICE Watch and the Ohio Good Neighbor Network. “We show them what to look out for, what does ICE look like, this is the type of uniform that agents wear, these are the types of vehicles that they drive.”

The Franklin County board of elections building at 1700 Morse Street serves as an early-voting site in a large Somali American community targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Operation Buckeye last December. ICE said the operation sought “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens.” The article said it led to few arrests, months of harassment and continuing fear that agents might return.

Baiman said residents walk to vote in an immigrant neighborhood heavily affected by ICE activity. Volunteers patrol near Columbus early-voting sites every day, and she expected their numbers to rise to about 250 on Election Day. They share reports through dozens of Signal and WhatsApp groups.

Community Watch, Not Official Reassurance

The Department of Homeland Security says it has no plans for operations targeting polling locations on Election Day. A DHS spokesperson told WIRED, “ICE is not planning operations targeting polling locations,” then added that agents conduct “intelligence-driven targeted enforcement” and could arrest someone if an active public safety threat endangered a polling location. That assurance comes with a broad enforcement caveat.

President Trump and his allies had declined for six months to rule out deployments to voting locations, which the article said federal law would prohibit. Asked in May whether he would deploy the National Guard or ICE during the midterms, Trump said, “I'd do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections. We have to have honest elections.” Todd Blanche, then acting attorney general, said in July, “Why are there objections to sending ICE officers to polling places? Illegals can't vote.” ICE and the White House didn't respond to requests for comment.

David Becker, a former Justice Department trial attorney who heads the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said at a media briefing, “ICE and troops will not be at the polls. It won't happen. If it happens at all, it will be isolated. It will be accidental. It just won't happen.” Yet Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said voters repeatedly asked him about federal agents at polling places as he traveled around Nevada, including Reno, Las Vegas and rural counties.

Training for the Worst-Case Scenario

The organizing spans towns and cities across the country. WIRED spoke with a dozen participants. Common Cause, the American Civil Liberties Union and Indivisible, along with local groups including Living United for Change in Arizona and NorCal Resist, organized training on documenting ICE activity, voters' rights and worst-case scenarios. The article said hundreds of groups were coordinating.

Volunteers work in pairs or groups, Baiman said, and train to de-escalate by humming or singing if a situation turns tense. In January, days after Alex Pretti was shot and killed in Minneapolis, more than 200,000 people joined an “Eyes on Ice” Zoom training on documenting ICE activity. Indivisible cofounder Ezra Levin said participants now use those skills during the midterms.

Living United for Change in Arizona trained volunteers as “constitutional defenders” and created a private heat map to log ICE activity. WIRED reviewed hundreds of incidents recorded in Maricopa and Pima counties. Voto Latino planned an Election Day war room to identify and debunk viral disinformation and prepare for possible ICE activity. Its executive director, Beatriz Lopez, said, “There is legitimate fear among our community.” She also said one anticipated scenario involved home raids that could have “a real chilling effect on people.”

When Agents Show Up

Last week, six ICE vehicles appeared in the parking lot of the Yuba City board of elections building in Sutter County, California, where a ballot drop box is located. After a resident called, NorCal Resist sent a trained volunteer and posted an alert on Instagram. The group's programs director, Giselle Garcia, said, “They don't like the attention, [and] when there's more community attention, they do often leave.”

DHS said the agents were conducting a targeted enforcement operation against a person from Mexico. DHS spokesperson Chandler Rebel said they parked in front of a polling center with permission from a representative of the center while waiting for the target to leave a courthouse. ICE didn't respond to a request for comment about the incident.

Some organizing stays private to protect online infrastructure groups built over the course of the past two years. Levin said Indivisible's leadership would work from an Airbnb at an undisclosed location on Election Day, ready to deploy resources. Jill Garvey, executive director of States at the Core, said traditional election protection infrastructure was “really, really robust,” but added, “then there is this grassroots infrastructure.” Volunteers, she said, had tactical documentation training and stood ready to record and publicize any increase in federal enforcement at polling places.