DHS Sec Mullin Comes Up With Some Reasons ICE Might Be Sent to Polls

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Jun 15, 2026

*DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin. TPM Illustration/YouTube/Getty Images.*

‘ICE Agents Are There to Flex If We Need to’

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin employed a bit of rhetorical spin, much like other member of the Trump administration have used before him, to evade directly answering questions about whether the Trump administration wants to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to the polls during a future election.

During an interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt on Sunday, Mullin questioned why ICE would need to be there in the first place if only American citizens are voting, a disingenuous deflection that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has used as well when pressed on whether the administration was considering taking such action. President Trump has himself insinuated that the possibility of ICE agents at the polls still hangs in the air, saying recently that he’s willing to “do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections.”

“No, keep in mind, why would ICE be there?” Mullin asked. “Because the only people who should be voting there is American citizens. There shouldn’t be any immigration enforcement. So this should be a moot deal for any Democrat.”

“So, why would there be a circumstance where you would need ICE agents?” Hunt continued.

“Keep in mind, ICE agents are there to flex if we need to,” he said, before outlining some specifics:

“So you saw ICE at TSA lines, not processing, but in the soft areas. If a threat were to arise for whatever reason at a polling station — say a bomb threat would be called in — our ICE agents are more than just Immigration And Customs Enforcement. They’re also trained to have SRT (Special Response Teams), which means that we can have an emergency team respond quickly.
“The only reason why we would be there is not for voter identification. It’d be because law enforcement is needed, and the local law enforcement would be part of that conversation. So we wouldn’t show up on our own. We would be getting asked to show up but not for immigration purposes, because, as I said, the only people that should be in line are American citizens. So there should be no reason to have any type of that.”

You may recall the volume of bomb threats that surfaced on the last major Election Day in 2024, so it is perhaps an easy thing for Mullin to point to as an example of a threat that might lead local law enforcement to ask for backup — though it is unclear why ICE agents would be the responding federal force tapped to help out in that sort of situation.

The TSA line example was perhaps the more telling bit of Mullin’s response. You’ll recall earlier this year, ICE agents were deployed to major airports around the country by Trump while security lines languished amid a partial government shutdown. TSA agents weren’t getting paid because DHS was shut down while Democrats demanded meaningful reforms to ICE’s practices after the killings of U.S. citizens and immigrants.

Sending ICE to the airports was more of a political flex for Trump at a time when the agents needed some image rehab than some type of generous maneuver to help Americans suffering lengthy travel lines. There were obviously heightened security risks and dangers to navigate due to people like air traffic controllers not getting paid, but the ICE agents standing around near security lines did not help with that.

Leaving open the possibility for ICE to step in to deal with some sort of unspecified threat is another non-answer to a question to which Democrats and journalists have been seeking an answer, mindful of a possible effort by Trump to intimidate voters in the fall. Though it may be evasive, its a response that keeps Mullin in Trump’s good graces.

Trump Apparently Makes Good on Newsom Retribution Threats

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a video announcement on Monday that Trump’s Justice Department is investigating him and his wife, describing the probe as an attempt to dig up dirt on a political rival. (Newsom also used the video to firmly identify himself as a 2028 presidential contender.)

“Last year Donald Trump directed his Department of Justice to investigate me. And just in the last week, I’ve learned that his campaign has reached my own home,” he said in a YouTube video posted Monday. “To get me, he’s coming after my wife, Jen.”

Trump “can subpoena my records, you can investigate me, you can harass me, put my name on every and any enemies list you have, but leave my wife and family out of your personal vendetta,” he continued.

CNN reports that, as of now, there is no official investigation directly into Newsom himself:

A source familiar with the matter told CNN there’s no investigation directly into Newsom, but the Eastern District of California is leading probes into people connected to him — including Jennifer Siebel Newsom over possible tax-related crimes.

Here’s the full video:

Trump Desperately Wants to Shove SAVE Act into Another Unrelated Piece of Legislation

Trump demanded over the weekend that Republicans in Congress attach his SAVE America Act — a bill that would disenfranchise millions of voters — to attempts to pass an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s (FISA) Section 702 surveillance authorities. (The extension has been met with bipartisan pushback.) This is not the first time he has tried to get Republicans to attach the restrictive voter ID bill to other unrelated pieces of legislation. And again, it sounds like Senate Republicans will sneak away from giving Trump what he wants.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told Punchbowl News on Monday that it was “unrealistic” to pass the SAVE Act by attaching it to the FISA extension.

“We will try and move 702 as soon as we feel like we have the votes to do it,” Thune said.