Human Rights Watch (HRW) Asks ICE to Stay Away from Polling Stations
Posted on 10/20/26 at 17:00
- HRW asks ICE to stay away from polling stations
- They warn of possible intimidation against immigrant voters
- Government denies plans for election deployment.
ICE at elections. The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) asked the United States Government on Tuesday to keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents away from polling stations during the November 3 midterm elections, due to fears that their presence could "intimidate" voters.
The NGO warned that the presence of immigration agents at polling stations can "generate fear, especially among immigrant communities".
They ask the Trump Administration to guarantee that immigration operations "do not interfere"
According to HRW, 40% of those surveyed in a September poll by the University of California, San Diego, considered it likely that ICE agents would be present at polling stations, so the organization called on the Donald Trump Administration to guarantee that immigration operations "do not interfere" with the elections and that voters can "go to the polls without fear of being detained or suffering reprisals".
The organization added that there are several lawsuits to prevent immigration agents from appearing at polling stations and another seeking to force the Government to reveal its plans for possible ICE actions during the elections.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin stated at the beginning of September that there were no plans to deploy ICE agents to polling stations, but left open the possibility that they could attend to execute detention orders.
ICE at elections: ICE has detained 368,135 people
The warnings come ahead of the midterm elections, in which the entire House of Representatives and a third of the Senate will be renewed, in a context of intense political debate over the Trump Administration's immigration policy.
HRW argues that any action that can be perceived as "intimidatory" threatens to "hinder electoral participation".
So far in the 2026 fiscal year, which began on October 1, 2025, and ends on September 30, 2026, ICE had detained 368,135 people, according to data analyzed by the Deportation Data Project, from the University of California, Berkeley, and Los Angeles.