New York poll worker confronted by ICE speaks out: ‘I’m even worried more about November’

By Jacob Knutson, Brentin Mock

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent points toward protesters outside Delaney Hall, which is being used as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, in Newark, New Jersey on June 6, 2026. The US state of New Jersey on June 2, 2026, sued the private prison company that runs the migrant detention center where protesters have rallied for several days over allegedly poor conditions at the jail. The lawsuit against GEO Group demands that local health authorities be allowed full access to Delaney Hall, one of many facilities holding people rounded up in US President Donald Trump's mass deportation sweep. (Photo by Ryan MURPHY / AFP via Getty Images)

Paigelynne Gonyea, the Syracuse poll worker who federal immigration agents recently confronted at her voting site as she worked an election, said in an interview with Democracy Docket that she’s exploring her legal options, including free speech violations. 

“This is bigger than me,” Gonyea told Democracy Docket. “This is about protecting not just my First Amendment rights, but the First Amendment rights of all Americans. This is me standing on business and defending our constitutional right of free speech.”

She said she was also speaking out on behalf of poll workers in general as they’ve increasingly experienced intimidation and threats from election deniers and conspiracists, including those inside the Trump administration.

“Election workers need to be safe at polling locations,” said Gonyea. “We shouldn’t feel intimidated at all for doing our job. We shouldn’t have to deal with ICE agents coming in.”

On Tuesday, two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from New Jersey visited Gonyea at her polling site to warn her about an Instagram post from nearly six months ago regarding the ICE agent who killed Renee Good in Minneapolis. They first arrived at a former address of hers, but were directed to her polling site where she told them she was working during New York’s primary election. 

The confrontation occurred as President Donald Trump and right-wing extremists have called for deploying armed ICE and military troops to polling sites, which is a violation of federal and state laws. It also comes as the Trump administration has taken several measures that voting rights advocates say are meant to intimidate voters and election workers in the upcoming midterms. 

Gonyea was aware of this and has criticized the Trump administration for these measures in her social media posts. When the ICE agents showed up they were wearing “really long coats” such that she “there was no way to tell if they had weapons on them,” she told Democracy Docket. 

Federal laws explicitly prohibit the deployment of any armed argents to polling sites. 

She said the agents were trying to force her to sign a form, an agreement that she would take down  her Instagram account over a post about the ICE agent Jonathan Ross who killed Good in Minneapolis. The agents accused her of doxxing Ross even though his name had already been publicized in other news outlets. They threatened her with prosecution if she didn’t remove her account.

She also said she gave the agents her polling site location with the understanding that they needed a court order to enter. They called her on her phone and asked her to come outside when they arrived, but Gonyea said she was afraid and told them to come inside “for [her] own security.” 

She said it was “strange” that they chose the day of the primary elections to visit her.

“From my understanding, they should have had a court order to even serve the paper as they were going inside a polling place,” Gonyea said. “Election workers need to be safe at polling locations. We shouldn’t feel intimidated at all for doing our job. We shouldn’t have to deal with ICE agents coming in.”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said on several occasions that he would only deploy ICE agents to a polling site “if there was a specific threat,” but has refused to otherwise rule it completely out. 

U.S. Rep. John W. Mannion (D-N.Y.), who represents Syracuse, sent a letter to Mullin Friday demanding an explanation for ICE’s actions.

“This widely reported incident has raised considerable civil liberties concerns,” wrote Mannion. “ICE should not be broadly targeting online speech or actively monitoring social media accounts without cause and without proper judicial protections. While true threats to federal agents are never permissible and should be investigated, I have not seen anything to suggest that is what occurred in this case.

Instead, it appears that this operation was designed to intimidate citizens for criticizing the agency’s enforcement activities, including the tragic killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.”

According to Mannion’s letter, the form that the agents wanted Gonyea to sign was from ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which “promotes organizational integrity by vigilantly managing ICE’s security programs, conducting independent reviews of ICE programs and operations, and impartially investigating allegations of employee and contractor misconduct.”

Mullin has until July 10 to respond to several questions Mannion asked in the letter concerning who ordered the agents to deliver the form, how many other civilians have ICE agents asked to sign similar documents, and what resources have been allocated towards ICE monitoring of social media accounts.

“I literally just want all poll workers to feel safe,” Gonyea said. “It’s supposed to be a safe work environment where we shouldn’t have to worry about such things happening. I’m kinda now even worried more about November.”