Witnesses in Florida have reported seeing federal immigration agents outside early voting sites in two separate incidents this week, raising concern because of a federal law that prohibits the presence of armed officers or troops near polling places.
One of the incidents now is being described as an “isolated instance” of Customs and Border Protection agents attempting to vote early before they left for an out-of-state work assignment.
It started on Monday, when two CBP vehicles were spotted parked outside the “busiest early voting site” in Leon County, according to county election supervisor Mark S. Earley.
The vehicles stayed at the Northeast Branch Library for about 10 minutes and then left, Earley said. The election office said it did not receive calls from voters about the incident, but Earley said he filed a complaint with the FBI because voters may “experience intimidation.”
On Friday, Earley’s office released an update saying the county sheriff’s office and FBI investigated and learned the vehicles were assigned to a team of agents normally stationed in south Florida who were recently assigned to another state. As they drove north to their new assignment, they stopped in Leon County at the last polling place before leaving the state, upon realizing they would not be in Florida to vote on Election Day.
“Mistakenly, the agents thought they could vote at that location, which is incorrect since they were not Leon County voters,” Earley said. “Upon realizing this, they immediately left the early voting site. I accept this account of the incident, as it fits the facts as I understand them, and it is in keeping with the guarantees election officials received that federal agents would not be stationed at polling sites. I am satisfied this was an isolated instance of agents attempting to vote before they left Florida.”
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Arrest outside separate polling place in another county causes concern
On Tuesday, a Key Largo community group posted video to social media showing masked and armed federal agents conducting what appeared to be a traffic stop outside the Murray Nelson Government Center.
“We do not know why these agents were at this poll,” a representative of the online community group 50501 Key Largo told Scripps News. “They may have stopped there with the intention of bullying and intimidating voters, or they may have carelessly turned into the poll during pursuit of a member of the community. Either way, whether due to ignorance or intention, their presence at a poll is an outrage.”
Monroe County election supervisor Sherri Hodies told Keys Weekly she spoke with CBP and was told agents were trying to pull over a suspect who decided to turn toward the government center. She said her office was investigating the incident.
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A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection acknowledged an inquiry about the incidents from Scripps News on Friday and said he was “working to share a response.”
Trump administration officials have repeatedly said there are no plans to send ICE or other federal agents to polling places, but have also added that the administration would not suspend regular law enforcement operations just because they happened to be in the vicinity of a polling place.
“The only reason why we would be at polling places is if there is a threat to that polling place or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down,” Homeland Security secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters last month.
