"Many people are afraid to go to vote": the fear of a possible deployment of the ICE in the US elections

WashingtonUncertainty has taken hold of the United States electoral events under Donald Trump, and the midterms of this coming November 3rd are no exception. The concern regarding any possible attempt by the American president to interfere in the elections has led thousands of volunteers to train for what might happen this coming November 3rd: from a potential deployment of ICE agents to the White House's attempt to challenge the results in some districts. "Authoritarians feed on fear, and the way to fight it is by organizing people," Jessica Acee, an organizer for States at the Core (STAC), a pro-democracy group that has trained more than 50,000 volunteers for the upcoming elections, explains to ARA.

The concern over the possibility that Trump might send ICE agents to some polling stations has not stopped growing since last month when the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, stated that, if the order were given, they would send agents there. "The job of ICE is to enforce immigration and customs laws. That is their function. If we are executing an order, we will be wherever we need to be," Mullin stated at the time.

The memory of the para-police brutality of ICE in Minnesota –which killed two American citizens– is what has encouraged civil and pro-democracy organizations to carry out preparation courses in the face of these possible scenarios. "The presence of federal forces, whether they are ICE agents or another body, is a danger to all of us," explains Acee, who emphasizes that many of the people who have attended the preparation courses have been driven by the anti-democratic drift of the Trump administration. "Often they are people who already work in public service: teachers, healthcare professionals, or people who are in charge of caring for others. They are people who see the effects of this administration's policies firsthand and want to do something about it.".

The training sessions prepared by STAC focus primarily on de-escalating tense situations at polling stations, as well as ensuring safety for voters in this context. Much of the tactics applied to combat ICE's presence in neighborhoods, such as always recording everything that happens, going in groups, and alerting the community, are recovered in these training sessions, explains the organizer. "One of the things we explain is how to organize safe routes to polling stations for neighbors who may be afraid," explains Acee. "Many people I know are truly afraid of going to vote and encountering agents along the way. Whatever happens, I think the damage is already done. The mere idea that ICE could be there already has the intended effect."

Among the theories of electoral fraud that Trump has spread in recent months, the claims that undocumented people have voted in previous elections stand out. With this premise, the US president has unsuccessfully tried to pass a more restrictive electoral law in Congress and has also created the perfect narrative to justify a possible ICE intervention. The racial profiling arrests practiced by anti-immigration agents in the US have already conditioned the lives of the country's Latin American and Black communities.

The day after the elections

Acee points out that majority Latino or Black electoral districts may be more vulnerable in these elections. "We know there are vulnerable people everywhere, whether they are immigrants or not," notes the organizer, who explains that her organization is especially monitoring states like Ohio, Tennessee, and California. But, beyond what may happen on November 3, Acee also explains that they are already beginning to prepare for possible post-election scenarios. "We could find ourselves with elections contested by the Trump administration or its allies, or with attempts to undermine votes or not certify them," says the organizer, who even assesses the possibility that the administration might try to "pressure local election officials not to certify the results."

On a national scale, organizations like the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) have also launched campaigns to protect the vote and teach U.S. citizens what their rights are as voters. At the local level, different initiatives have also appeared that go in the same direction. In states where early voting has already begun, such as Ohio, the Vote Safe initiative has begun deploying volunteers to polling places to ensure that no situations of intimidation toward voters occur. The Vote Safe campaign plans to do the same later in Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan.

In Arizona, the organization LUCHA, which represents the Latino community, has also formed groups of neighbors to act as observers at polling places. In this southern state, the memory of the 2020 elections is still very much alive, when a group of armed Trump supporters showed up at the Maricopa (Phoenix) counting center in response to the theories of electoral fraud that Trump had already deployed back then. "It's not that there are no precedents for what is happening, but it is undoubtedly a new model of elections for many Americans," concludes Acee.