The city of Denver filed a federal lawsuit Thursday seeking to bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from appearing at voting locations, escalating a clash over federal law enforcement presence during the upcoming midterm elections.
The complaint, lodged against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its acting secretary, Markwayne Mullin, contends that a directive permitting ICE agents to conduct arrests and serve warrants at polling places runs afoul of the “Troops at Polls” statute. That Civil War-era law, enacted by Congress, imposes fines and imprisonment on federal officers who enter any place where an election is underway “unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.”
Denver’s legal team, joined by immigrant advocacy groups including LULAC, Common Cause, and UnidosUS, argued in the filing that “the specter of armed officers at polling places threatens the freedom of this upcoming election.” They wrote that the policy “places voters in fear that they will be confronted by armed federal immigration enforcement officers if they choose to cast a ballot.”
Mullin has insisted that ICE agents would only be dispatched to polling sites “if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down.” But the plaintiffs dismissed that assurance, pointing to recent violent encounters involving federal agents, including the deaths of two U.S. citizens—Renee Good and Alex Pretti—in separate incidents in January. They also cited a ProPublica investigation alleging that ICE detained more than 170 American citizens during the first nine months of President Trump’s second term.
“DHS Defendants’ failure to engage in reasoned decision making and disregard for existing federal law taints the Polling Place Policy,” the lawsuit states.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnson condemned the directive in a statement Thursday, saying that stationing ICE officers near voting sites “is only meant to scare people and suppress votes.” He vowed, “We’ll fight tooth and nail to prevent it.”
Janet Murguía, president and CEO of UnidosUS, echoed that sentiment, calling the ICE move “voter suppression plain and simple.”
The lawsuit arrives amid broader Democratic concerns about federal interference in elections. The Department of Justice has announced plans to deploy monitors to polling places in November, and NewsNation reports that DOJ monitors were already present during Rhode Island’s primary election on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has pursued restrictions on mail-in voting and is working to purge voter rolls, though the window for implementing those changes is shrinking with Election Day less than 60 days away.
ICE did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.
