{"id":46573,"date":"2026-02-06T11:56:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=46573"},"modified":"2026-02-06T11:56:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T19:56:56","slug":"white-house-cant-guarantee-ice-wont-be-at-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/02\/06\/white-house-cant-guarantee-ice-wont-be-at-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"White House \u2018can\u2019t guarantee\u2019 ICE won\u2019t be at polls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Yunior Rivas<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

February 5, 2026 (democracydocket.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gives remarks during a press briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington DC, on Thursday, February 6, 2026. Credit: Aaron Schwartz\/CNP Photo by: Aaron Schwartz\/picture-alliance\/dpa\/AP Images<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House Thursday refused<\/a> to rule out the presence of immigration enforcement at voting locations this November, a response that follows extremist rhetoric about placing federal forces at the polls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked directly about far-right activist Steve Bannon\u2019s claim<\/a> that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would \u201csurround the polls,\u201d White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the question while conceding the Trump administration could not promise such a thing would not happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not something I\u2019ve ever heard the president consider,\u201d Leavitt said. \u201cI can\u2019t guarantee that an ICE agent won\u2019t be around a polling location in November.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leavitt went on to characterize the question as unreasonable even as she declined to draw a bright line protecting polling places from federal law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s frankly a very silly hypothetical question,\u201d she said. \u201cBut what I can tell you is I haven\u2019t heard the president discuss any formal plans to put ICE outside of polling locations. It\u2019s a disingenuous question.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, federal and state law has treated polling places as sensitive spaces where intimidation \u2014 whether explicit or implied \u2014 is prohibited<\/a> because it undermines the right to vote freely. The federal government has historically recognized polling places as off-limits for immigration enforcement precisely to avoid deterring lawful voters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leavitt\u2019s comments also come against the backdrop of increasingly explicit calls from Trump-aligned figures to use the machinery of the federal government to police elections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week, Bannon said on his War Room podcast that immigration agents should be deployed at polling places in November, echoing long-debunked conspiracy theories that undocumented immigrants are voting in U.S. elections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no evidence to support those claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Leavitt insisted she was unaware of \u201cformal plans\u201d to put ICE near voting locations, her refusal to categorically reject the idea outright marked a dangerous openness to intimidate lawful voters using federal force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yunior Rivas February 5, 2026 (democracydocket.com) White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gives remarks during a press briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington DC, on Thursday, February 6, 2026. Credit: Aaron Schwartz\/CNP Photo by: Aaron Schwartz\/picture-alliance\/dpa\/AP Images The White House Thursday refused to rule… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46574,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46573\/revisions\/46574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}