Arizona Republicans push plan to require agents at all voting sites

Polling shows that Americans want to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
following the murders of two American citizens in Minnesota amid a
violent surge to round up immigrants as part of President Donald Trump’s
mass deportation agenda, but Arizona Republicans want to require ICE
officers to be stationed at polling places this year.

This week, the Arizona Senate will
take up a proposal to force all 15 of the state’s counties to sign an
agreement with ICE “to provide for a federal immigration law enforcement
presence at each location within this state where ballots are cast or
deposited.”

The Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee is slated to take up the strike-everything amendment to Senate Bill 1570
either Wednesday or Friday. (The committee has scheduled nearly 60
bills for hearings over the two meetings, but it’s unknown which
measures will be considered on which day. This is the final week for
legislative committees to hear bills.)

Even if it passes, the proposal by Sen. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, seems to directly run afoul of federal law,
which bars “any troops or armed men” who are part of “the civil,
military, or naval service of the United States” from being deployed to
polling locations. The only exception is if doing so is needed to “repel armed enemies of the United States.”

The bill comes after a visit last week from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who stumped for the Safeguard
American Voter Eligibility Act, more commonly known as the SAVE Act,
and urged Congress to pass it. She also mentioned she had met with some
Arizona officials to discuss elections. 

The ICE-at-polling-places proposal
also comes amid a clash between Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap, a
Republican, and the GOP-controlled County Board of Supervisors over his
refusal to answer questions under oath about his operations. Heap, who has embraced election denialism, touted use of a federal program that has been mistakenly flagging citizens as noncitizens. 

Hoffman said requiring masked ICE agents at every polling site in Arizona will instill confidence in elections. 

“The intent is to deter violations
before they happen, ensure existing laws are followed, and protect the
rights of every lawful voter,” Hoffman said in a press release. “Just as
importantly, the legislation makes clear that voting cannot be
disrupted and that no one may be targeted simply for participating in an
election. When voters see the rules applied fairly and consistently,
confidence in the outcome follows.” 

But ICE has been empowered by the U.S. Supreme Court to racially profile people, and its weekslong surge into Minneapolis was marked by ICE agents demanding nonwhite people
they encountered — even those simply walking down the street in their
neighborhood — provide proof they are citizens and detaining those who
couldn’t, or whose proof didn’t satisfy an agent.

In Arizona,
where nearly half of the population is nonwhite — including one-third
of residents who are Latino — stationing immigration agents outside of
polling places where they could detain anyone who showed up to vote
would likely result in some voters opting not to cast a ballot. 

Voting by noncitizens is rare,
and Arizona voters must provide documented proof of citizenship in
order to register to vote, as well as show their ID at the polls before
being given a ballot. There has been no evidence of widespread voter
fraud. 

Hoffman did not respond to a request for comment from the Arizona Mirror about his bill. 

Alex Gulotta, the state director for
All Voting is Local, linked Hoffman’s bill to Noem’s comments last week
that the Trump administration is working to ensure that only the “right people” cast ballots for the “right candidates.”

“This bill is driven by that same
mentality. They want to militarize our polling places to create terror
and fear because they know they cannot win fair and square,” he said.

Recent polling has shown that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe ICE has gone too far, with a record number of Republicans, 19%, now supporting abolishing the agency.  

The White House has said it has no “formal plans” for ICE at polling locations this year, but the Trump administration notably has not ruled out doing so.