ICE chief insists paramilitary force won’t ‘guard’ US polling stations

Trump’s personal fascist militia are pulling out of Minneapolis. But undoubtedly, this not be the last we will be seeing of them.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other US state thugs terrorised locals for months — even killing two — as they sought to bring the city under control where their presence is fiercely contested.

ICE and border patrol operations are being carried out under the guise enforcing migration laws. However, there are stirrings of a full assault on US democracy — with new leaks showing how agents are now spying on American citizens who oppose them.

Border Czar Tom Homan said on 11 February:

A significant drawdown has already been underway this week and will continue through next week.

Bizarrely, he claimed that the move was driven by a drop in local opposition to ICE thuggery.

A small footprint of personnel will remain for a period of time to close out and transition full command control back to the field office, as well as to ensure agitator activity continues to decline and that state and local law enforcement continue to respond to ensure officer and community safety.

Homan has previously moaned that ICE were treated meanly. This time around, he’s arguing that violent officers going around — dressed like special forces soldiers — are lawful, labelling them:

legitimate federal law enforcement agency. We’re not out scouring the streets to disappear people or deny people their civil rights or due process.

If you say so, Tom. The mirage doesn’t fool us.

Critics suggested the withdrawal was due to the optics of militarised, masked thugs swaggering about the streets and beating people up:

ICE is backing out of Minneapolis because they see how poorly this operation polls with American public. That's the only reason they're retreating – because of polls, not people's safety.

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) February 12, 2026

And on 12 February a judge ruled that the Trump administration was breaching the constitutional rights of detainees in Minnesota by blocking access to legal counsel inside “ill-equipped” and “overcrowded” facilities.

Homan was sent in to replace Border Patrol’s fun-size fascist-themed boss Greg Bovino. This is the same guy who  lost his job after the street execution of local nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents.

Attack on democracy

ICE chief Todd Lyons was questioned by lawmakers on 12 February. He tried to quash rumours ICE would ‘guard’ US polling stations. The notion that Trump’s boot-boys would do so is widely seen as an open attack on the democratic process.

Trump has floated the idea of nationalizing (federalising, in US terms) American elections — pivoting away from the traditional model in which states maintain substantial power over election processes. This is usually referred to part of ‘state’s rights’.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) tested Lyons at a session of the Homeland Security Committee:

You listen to what the president and his cabinet are saying, I have to ask about our 2026 elections.

She continued:

The president says we should federalize our elections, even though the U.S. Constitution was written by our founders to give that power to the states so that we would never have a president who took too much power and tried to become a king.

Lyons told Slotkin:

So, ma’am, we’re civil, obviously we do civil enforcement and criminal law enforcement There’s no reason for us to deploy to a polling facility.

Challenged again, Lyons maintained ICE would have no role in election security. Slotkin back referred to Trump’s own comments:

I’m talking about something that I think would be extraordinary in American history, which is uniformed and massed ice agents encircling polling places.

And it’s not fantasy, it’s not made up. These are things that the president and his cabinet have suggested. They’ve suggested invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow active duty military to do the very same thing.

Lyons again denied the possibility. Slotkin told him:

Great. Well, I hope that in the privacy of that meeting, when that comes down, and the president feels like he’s going to lose the midterm elections, that you don’t buckle.

But democracy isn’t just about elections. It is about the freedom to organise and express yourself. And the Feds are trying to stop that too.

ICE spies

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) controls ICE. And DHS is spying on activists. US reporter Ken Klippenstein has seen leaked files telling us how:

The new program, called “masked engagement,” allows homeland security officers to assume false identities and interact with users—friending them, joining closed groups, and gaining access to otherwise private postings, photographs, friend lists and more.

A senior DHS offical told Klippenstein:

that over 6,500 field agents and intelligence operatives can use the new tool, a significant increase explicitly linked to more intense monitoring of American citizens.

Masked engagement is a special category of surveillance. Unlike the more passive masked ‘monitoring’, ‘engagement’ operations give state security forces a licence to enter chats and groups to obtain intelligence.

The new practice of masked engagement allows for operations where a federal government employee or contractor uses fake identities or credentials that conceal their official affiliation.

ICE operate under the aegis of Trumpian anti-immigration policy. They are much more than that.

ICE are Trump’s personal posse. The agency is there to discipline the US population — if necessary with lethal force. But, as Minnesotans have just shown us, ICE can be beaten on the streets.

We must take on board those lessons, and sustain the momentum.

Featured image via the Canary