UnidosUS Joins New Lawsuit That Challenges Trump-Vance Administration Plan to Send Armed ICE Officers Into Polling Places

Plaintiffs represent millions of voters across the United States

Washington, D.C. — The largest and oldest Latino civil rights membership organization in the United States, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), joined by Common Cause, a voting rights organization with nearly one million members, UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization with more than 300 Affiliates nationwide, and the city and county of Denver, Colorado, filed a lawsuit today challenging the Trump-Vance administration’s policy of authorizing armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to enter polling places to conduct immigration enforcement operations during the 2026 midterm elections.

The lawsuit challenges a policy confirmed and clarified by U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin on September 1, when he said that ICE officers could enter polling places to serve warrants or conduct other immigration and customs enforcement activity. The suit explains that the policy violates, among other laws, a federal law that has prohibited anyone from sending armed federal personnel to polling places for more than 150 years, and that the presence of armed officers is intimidating and threatening.

The lawsuit comes as early voting is set to begin in several states later this month and just weeks before Americans across the country cast their ballots in the November 3 midterm elections.

Congress first enacted the prohibition against armed federal personnel at polling places in the final months of the Civil War to protect free and fair elections from federal interference. Under federal law, armed federal personnel may not be ordered, brought, kept, or maintained at a place where an election is being held except when necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.

The complaint alleges that the administration’s new policy directly defies that prohibition by authorizing armed ICE officers to enter polling locations for ordinary immigration enforcement, including serving warrants and detaining people suspected of being unlawfully present in the United States. It also explains that the new policy violates the federal prohibition on arbitrary and capricious government action.

“The right to vote is foundational to our democracy and yet this administration continues in its endless attempts to weaken the very institutions it is entrusted to protect,” said Juan Proaño, CEO of LULAC. “The outcomes of elections define the future for all of us, and in America, voters should be able to cast their ballots without fear of intimidation by armed ICE officers at polling places. We are proud to join this litigation and fight to protect fundamental American freedom.”

“Putting armed officers in polling places is a tactic used by dictators, but we won’t be scared out of exercising our rights,” said Common Cause President & CEO Virginia Kase Solomón. “No American should ever have to walk past armed federal law enforcement just to cast a ballot, yet this administration has adopted a policy that allows exactly that. Everyday Americans refuse to be silenced by the administration’s continuous efforts to meddle with our elections. From taking legal action to stop this policy to leading the nation’s largest nonpartisan Election Protection program, Common Cause is fighting alongside voters to keep our elections free, fair, and accessible.”

“Sending armed ICE officers to polling places is not immigration enforcement — it is voter suppression, plain and simple,” said UnidosUS President & CEO Janet Murguía. “All Americans — including Latino voters  — have a constitutional right to cast their ballot without fear of interrogation, detention, or family separation. This case is about protecting voters, preserving confidence in our elections, and ensuring that every eligible voter can participate free from intimidation.”

“The right to vote, and to do so without fear of intimidation, is fundamental to our democracy and to being an American,” said Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. “Stationing ICE agents near polling places is only meant to scare people and suppress votes. We’ll fight tooth and nail to prevent it.”

“Our right to vote is powerful and enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Code,” said Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul López. “Denver is the vanguard of democracy, and with cast-iron certainty we will protect our free and fair elections from any and all attempts at federal intimidation and intrusion.”

The administration’s announcement follows months of actions that the lawsuit alleges constitute a policy of authorizing ICE agents to enter polling places, and which demonstrate an escalating effort to bring federal immigration enforcement into the electoral process. Earlier this year, senior administration officials publicly questioned why ICE officers should not be sent to polling stations, the U.S. Department of Justice removed longstanding guidance explaining restrictions on federal law enforcement activity at polling places, and ICE agents conducted enforcement actions at active polling sites in Texas and New York.

The lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to declare the Polling Place Policy unlawful and block the administration from implementing it, including by prohibiting federal officers from going to polling places for purposes other than to repel armed enemies of the United States.

The case is League of United Latin American Citizens v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, et al., and the plaintiffs are represented by Democracy Forward and Public Rights Project.

Read the filing here.