Denver sues Trump to block ICE patrols at polling sites

Denver, along with Common Cause, UnidosUS and the League of United Latin American Citizens, sued the Trump administration on Thursday to block armed ICE agents from operating near polling sites in the midterms, citing an 1865 statute banning armed federal men at elections. The suit points to incidents this summer in San Antonio, Ventura County and Syracuse where ICE agents entered active polling places, and to the Justice Department's removal of a manual that had barred such patrols.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said agents would only appear at polling places to respond to a threat or serve a warrant, calling Democratic warnings fearmongering. The coalition counters that Congress removed a similar exception in 1909 specifically to stop authorities from using any disturbance as a pretext to send in force.

The lawsuit arrives after the Supreme Court in August rejected a separate challenge to the administration's mail-in voting overhaul as premature, since no formal policy existed to sue over. Denver's suit tries to get ahead of that problem by asking a judge to declare the alleged 'Polling Place Policy' unlawful before early voting begins.

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