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Arizona GOP Pushes 'Fascist' Bill Requiring ICE at the Polls on Election Day
It comes shortly after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem went to Arizona and said her agency would "make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders."
Feb 18, 2026
As the Trump administration threatens to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement to menace voters on election day, Arizona Republicans are pushing for a bill that would require every county to allow federal agents at polling places to “observe election activities.”
The Arizona state Senate is expected to take up the proposal this week, which would require all 15 counties in the state 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.”
Following federal agents' killings of two American citizens in Minneapolis and a wave of violence and civil rights violations, including racial profiling, approval of ICE is at an all-time low among the American public, with more Americans now saying they want to abolish the agency than keep it around, according to polls.
Nearly half of all Arizona residents are nonwhite. Under this proposal, there will be virtually no way for them to vote without a federal immigration agent potentially watching.
The memo introducing the text to Senate Bill 1570 "requires such an agreement to provide for the presence of federal immigration law enforcement personnel during all hours in which voting is conducted, or ballots are deposited, including early voting locations, election day polling places, and ballot drop box locations."
It also "allows federal immigration law enforcement personnel to observe election activities and perform lawful duties within the scope of their federal authority."
As Jerod MacDonald-Evoy noted for the Arizona Mirror, monitoring elections is explicitly considered to be outside the "lawful duties" of ICE agents.
The proposal... 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 proposal was introduced by Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-15), the chairman of the Arizona Freedom Caucus, whose page on the official website of the Arizona state legislature states that his "mission" is to "destroy the progress of Marxist communists at every level."
His bill prohibits agents from "interfering with the casting or depositing of ballots, except as otherwise authorized by law." However, Hoffman has suggested that agents are intended to verify who is and is not allowed to vote.
“The intent is to deter violations before they happen, ensure existing laws are followed, and protect the rights of every lawful voter,” Hoffman said Tuesday. “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.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has given agents directives to detain people without judicial warrants and perform "roving patrols" that take people's ethnicity and spoken language into account. There are many documented cases in which agents have stopped and detained US citizens purely based on their accent.
After previously floating the idea to outright cancel the 2026 midterm elections for fear of losing, President Donald Trump has more recently called for Republicans to "nationalize the voting" in certain Democratic strongholds in violation of the Constitution.
A top ally of the president, former White House strategist Steve Bannon, said earlier this month that Trump should "have ICE surround the polls" on election day so Democrats don't "steal the country again"—a reference to the baseless claim, disproven by numerous investigations and court cases, that the 2020 election was rigged against Trump.
The White House has since sought to downplay fears that agents may swarm the polls later this year.
At a press conference last week, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said deploying ICE to polling centers was "not something I’ve ever heard the president consider.” But she also hedged, saying: “I can’t guarantee that an ICE agent won’t be around a polling location in November.”
Todd Lyons, the acting head of ICE, assured members of Congress during a hearing last week that "there’s no reason to use ICE officers" at polling stations.
However, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has hinted that her agency, which oversees ICE as well as Customs and Border Protection (CBP), will have a role in determining who is allowed to vote.
“When it gets to Election Day, we’ve been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country,” she said on Friday.
Those comments were made as Noem paid a visit to Arizona to promote the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, more commonly known as the SAVE Act.
This bill, proposed by Republicans in the US Congress, would require voters to prove their citizenship—not just provide a voter ID—in order to vote, which advocates have warned would lead to the potential disenfranchisement of millions of eligible voters. Noem said she discussed elections with Arizona officials.
Arizona's bill to allow ICE in the polls, which will receive a hearing in the Senate on Wednesday, suggests that Republicans there expect Trump's troops to be on their way in November.
Garrett Archer, a data analyst and reporter at ABC15 Arizona, said that Republican operatives in the state view the bill as a "telegraph of the potentially incoming Trump executive order."
"An executive order cannot force states to compel voters to show ID to vote," he wrote on social media. "But what they can try to do is station federal agents at polling places who would conduct the ID check."
Republicans control both houses of the Arizona state legislature and could theoretically pass the bill without Democratic support. However, it is unlikely to be signed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.
Elvia Díaz, a former editorial page editor and contributor at the Arizona Republic, said that although the requirement is unlikely to become law, "the mere idea is chilling."
"It signals, once again, that Trump Republicans are laying the groundwork to militarize the electoral process," she wrote in a blog post. "Placing armed immigration agents at the very locations where citizens exercise their right to vote resembles the kind of intimidation tactics seen in authoritarian regimes."
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Trump Effort 'To Rig Our Elections Is Well Underway,' Experts Warn
One expert expressed fear that "something truly spectacular is going to happen in which our 2026 midterm elections are not administered like past elections have been."
Feb 12, 2026
A pair of experts warned this week that President Donald Trump is clearly telegraphing his intention to meddle in the 2026 midterm elections.
Stephen Richer, former recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, said during an interview with The Atlantic published Wednesday that he's grown worried that "something truly spectacular is going to happen in which our 2026 midterm elections are not administered like past elections have been."
When asked to flesh out how Trump could potentially rig the upcoming elections, Richer said it was unlikely that he would deploy US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to polling places across the country, if for no other reason than he lacks the manpower to accomplish such an operation.
However, Richer did express concern about the president's ability to muddy waters in tight races and put pressure on his Republican allies to refuse to seat Democratic winners when he is claiming there are disputes about the results.
"Where I think President Trump is most potent is still in the post-election procedures," he explained, "still in sowing doubt in the minds of enough Americans that they don’t think the elections are legitimate and, therefore... the Congress doesn’t have to seat its new members. That’s certainly a popular theory that’s floating about: that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), the outgoing speaker, will choose not to seat the new members, because they’re in allegedly disputed elections."
Richer argued that California could be particularly vulnerable to this, since the state infamously takes so long to finish tallying its votes.
In a New York Times editorial published Thursday, Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Brennan Center for Justice's voting rights and elections program, argued that Trump's "campaign to rig our elections is well underway," and he pointed to the president's mass pardon last year of rioters who violently stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 as the beginning of his election subversion campaign.
"We have every reason to expect more actions like these in the coming months," wrote Morales-Doyle. "A few weeks ago, Mr. Trump reiterated his threats to prosecute election officials who ran the 2020 election. Just days later, FBI agents seized ballots and election records from 2020 in Fulton County, Georgia."
However, Morales-Doyle also said there was reason to believe that the American system can withstand the president's assault on its election integrity, and he gave a nod toward several efforts across the country to fight back, including states resisting Trump's demands to hand over their voter rolls and Democrats refusing to let new voter suppression legislation pass through Congress.
"We are already seeing how effective people can be in pushing back," he concluded, "whether on the streets of Minneapolis or at town halls hosted by their representatives in Congress. It will be incumbent on all of us—election officials, advocates, state law enforcement, and voters—to see the administration’s efforts for what they are and to fight back."
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1 Person in Serious Condition After Border Patrol Shooting in Arizona
The group No More Deaths said that "we condemn all acts of violence from Border Patrol; call for a thorough investigation; and demand that the victim receive continued access to medical attention."
Jan 27, 2026
This is a developing story… Please check back for updates…
An Arizona sheriff confirmed Tuesday evening that a suspect is in "serious but stable" condition after a morning shooting that involved US Border Patrol—which is facing mounting scrutiny for its involvement in President Donald Trump's mass deportation operations.
During a press conference, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said that an agent conducted a traffic stop targeting someone believed to be involved in human trafficking. He said the suspect fled on foot and fired a gun, and an agent returned fire.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department (PCSD) is "working in coordination" with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which oversees Border Patrol.
An FBI representative at the press conference identified the suspect as 34-year-old Patrick Gary Schlegel. He faces various charges.
At around 7:30 am local time, the Santa Rita Fire District responded to the shooting near milepost 15 of West Arivaca Road in Pima County, just miles from the Border Patrol checkpoint in Amado and the US-Mexico border.
"Patient care was transferred to a local medical helicopter for rapid transport to a regional trauma center," the fire department said in a statement. "The incident remains under active investigation by law enforcement agencies."
The Associated Press reported that "the area is a common path for drug smugglers and migrants who illegally cross the border, so agents regularly patrol there."
PCSD said in a statement that FBI requests for the department to conduct investigations "are standard practice when a federal agency is involved in a shooting incident within Pima County and consistent with long-standing relationships built through time to promote transparency."
"We ask the community to remain patient and understanding as this investigation moves forward," the department also said. "PCSD will thoroughly examine all aspects of the incident, however, these investigations are complex and require time."
No More Deaths, a humanitarian aid group in the region, said that the incident "reflects a long history of violence from federal immigration enforcement. Since 2010, there have been 364 documented deadly encounters with Border Patrol. The number of deaths and disappearance due to Border Patrol enforcement is estimated to reach over 10,000."
"In the present moment, excessive use of force from federal agents has become especially visible. This past week, Border Patrol agents shot and killed a second legal observer in Minneapolis," the group noted. The killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good have ramped up protests against Trump's "Operation Metro Surge" in Minnesota and demands for accountability across the country.
"As a humanitarian organization founded on the belief that all people deserve dignity, we condemn all acts of violence from Border Patrol; call for a thorough investigation; and demand that the victim receive continued access to medical attention," said No More Deaths, which also called for the abolition of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
CBP and ICE are both part of the US Department of Homeland Security. The various shootings and other violence by DHS agents in recent months have fueled calls for the resignation or impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump.
Although the Trump administration has responded to the outrage in Minnesota by relocating a key official—the Atlantic reported Monday that "Gregory Bovino has been removed from his role as Border Patrol 'commander at large' and will return to his former job in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire soon"—the president said Tuesday that Noem won't resign.
DHS violence has also complicated a congressional effort to prevent a federal government shutdown before the end of the month, given the growing number of lawmakers and people across the country demanding "no funds for ICE and Border Patrol."
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