ICE sued for records of its plans for Election Day

Americans are still in the dark about the extent of the federal government’s plans to interfere in the midterm elections, the pro-democracy group Democracy Forward said in a lawsuit seeking additional details about the possibility of sending ICE to the polls.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a new Democracy Forward report, shared exclusively with Democracy Docket, showing how the Department of Homeland Security has been laying the groundwork to exert control over voting.

In the lawsuit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court of D.C., Democracy Forward said that it has received “no correspondence” from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) about six FOIA requests it filed with the agency in June – all related to the agency’s plans and communications for election day activities. 

The pro-voting group is asking the court to force ICE to produce those records and block the agency from withholding any further requested documents.

Some of ICE’s election day plans are documented in the Democracy Forward report, which shows how the agency has expanded its investigations into noncitizen voting despite scant evidence of it occurring. 

“The findings detailed in this report raise serious concerns about actions that could undermine public confidence in our elections and the ability of eligible voters to participate freely,” League of Women Voters CEO Celina Stewart said in a public statement. 

“Voters deserve elections that are free from intimidation, political interference, and unnecessary barriers to participation.”

Among the key findings of the report:

• Several ICE offices sought access to multiple states’ voter files and have investigated civic engagement nonprofits
• ICE officials confirmed policies allowing armed federal officers to conduct immigration operations at polling sites in November, despite federal laws prohibiting this 
• State election officials have identified additional deficiencies of the controversial SAVE database system, which the federal government has retooled to purge voters

• The expanding influence of election deniers over the federal government’s midterms plans, recycling debunked voter fraud claims, particularly about the 2020 election
• The FBI’s broadening probes into individual voters and voting machines 
• The DOJ’s ramping up of its campaign to take over states’ voting records, leaving even compliant states frustrated with Justice officials’ harrying requests. 

“DOJ does not yet appear to have provided compliant states with the results of any analysis of their voter rolls,” the report reads. 

One record obtained by DF shows that Mississippi’s Secretary of State’s office “expressed confusion” to DOJ and questioned whether the federal agency misled state officials about how it would use the state voter files. 

“DOJ has repeatedly obscured how they will analyze voter rolls, and these records make clear that even states that have worked with the administration have been left in the dark on DOJ’s plans,” the report said.

DF’s lawsuit shows that ICE is also leaving the public in the dark about what it plans to do as voters begin casting ballots. 

DF filed six FOIA requests with ICE in June requesting records related to directives and policies around investigating voter fraud, official reports on noncitizens voting, the use of certain databases for storing voters’ information, and communications between ICE officials about their enforcement action plans, all dating back to October 2025. 

ICE acknowledged the receipt of all of these requests, according to the lawsuit, but has provided “no correspondence” with DF since the FOIAs were filed. 

“The records tell a deeply troubling story: the Trump-Vance administration is harnessing the power of the federal government to pursue baseless election conspiracies and interfere with how our elections are administered,” Democracy Forward president Skye Perryman said in a statement. “They are part of a broader effort that is clearly intended to intimidate voters, undermine public trust, and interfere with our elections, but Americans have the power to stop this malfeasance and corruption.”

Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias serves as Democracy Forward’s board chair.