COULD SENDING ICE TO THE POLLS BE AS MUCH OF A FLOP FOR TRUMP AS SENDING ICE TO THE AIRPORTS?

Yes, this is worrisome:

During a conversation with conservative lawyer Mike Davis on his “War Room” program, [Steve] Bannon asked, “We can use what’s happening with these ICE [officers] helping out at the airports, we can use this as a test run, as a test case to really perfect ICE’s involvement in the 2026 midterm elections, sir?”

Davis responded, “Yeah, I think we should have ICE agents at the polling places, because if you’re an illegal alien you can’t vote, right? It’s against the law, it’s a federal crime for you to vote in federal elections.”

“And so, if you’re an American citizen, you should be happy that ICE is there, because you’re not going to have illegal aliens canceling out your vote,” he added.

“Exactly,” Bannon replied. “Pick ‘em out of line starting today, and maybe the lines will get shorter.”

The New York Times tells us:

When President Trump wanted to do something about the long lines at U.S. airports on Monday, he turned to one of his favorite tools: Immigration and Customs Enforcement....

Mr. Trump has increasingly used ICE to try to achieve personal and political objectives, deploying a force with a quasi-military bearing around the country with a message that he intends to not just carry out his anti-immigration agenda but to also enforce his views on constituencies and states that have opposed him.

But is it working? It is in the right's fantasy world. Here's a response to the airport deployment from a prominent right-wing cartoonist:

But here's the reality:

ICE agents at JFK doing...nothing

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— Molly Ploofkins (@mollyploofkins.bsky.social) March 23, 2026 at 4:22 PM

ICE agents deployed to nation's swamped airports to stand around and do nothing: defector.com/ice-agents-d...

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— Defector (@defector.com) March 23, 2026 at 2:10 PM

While security waiting lines get longer and longer.

Incredible scene: Travelers wait on hours-long security line at George Bush International Airport in Houston while Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” blasts through the speakers. (video shared directly with me)

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— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) March 23, 2026 at 1:01 PM

Sending ICE to the polls is obviously a very different matter. ICE agents can intimidate voters, including citizens who might be mistaken for non-citizen immigrants, or people who have protested the administration and might fear that they're in a database and thus could be subject to arrest.

But it's possible that a combination of legal pushback by Trump critics and strategic incompetence by the president himself will cause this effort to seem as sad and pointless as the airport deployment. First, please note that the number of agents deployed at airports yesterday was "between 100 and 150," according to the Times. That's not enough to cover all the key precincts in all the key races in November -- though, obviously, the fear of these agents might have a force-multiplying effect even where they're not deployed. There's also the fact that many people will vote early in person (unless the Supreme Court decides not merely to end the acceptance of late-arriving mail ballots but also ban early voting altogether), so the intimidation will have to go on for weeks.

And there'll be lawsuits.

It is illegal to deploy federal troops or armed federal law enforcement to any polling place. In fact, it is a federal crime for anyone in the U.S. military to interfere in elections in any way. More specifically, it is a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, to deploy federal “troops or armed men” to any location where voting is taking place or elections are being held, unless “such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.” ...

It is also a federal crime for anyone, including federal agents, to intimidate voters. Anyone who does so may be liable for a number of different federal criminal offenses.

We could have clueless ICE agents forced to stand well outside polling places, doing nothing the way they're now doing nothing at the airports, if at least some judges issue emergency rulings preventing ICE from operating at the polls.

And some state laws might apply.

Legislation to restrict immigration enforcement or the presence of federal forces near polling places and other election sites has been offered or announced in California, Connecticut, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington....

The New Mexico legislature in February passed a measure that largely mirrors restrictions in federal law against armed federal personnel at polling places....

The bill says officials generally cannot order or bring troops or other armed federal agents to polling places or parking areas for polling places beginning 28 days before Election Day, when early in-person voting begins. It also would prohibit officials from changing who is qualified to vote contrary to New Mexico law or from imposing election rules that conflict with state law. Violators would be guilty of a felony.

That New Mexico bill is now state law.

I don't want to downplay the dangers here, but I think it's possible that President Trump will mishandle this. He wins praise from his base no matter how poorly he executes his plans, so he's always at risk of failure. (See also: the war in Iran.) I'm worried about federal goons at the polls, but a poorly executed deployment is a real possibility.