Bannon: “We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November”

Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon said Tuesday that immigration agents should “surround” polling places in November to prevent what he claimed would be Democrats’ effort to “steal” the election.

Bannon said, “You’re damn right we’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November,”

“We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again. And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen.”

“President Trump has to nationalize the election. You’ve got to put — not just, I think, ICE — you’ve got to call up the 82nd and 101st Airborne [Divisions] on the Insurrection Act,” Bannon said. “You’ve got to get around every poll and make sure only people with IDs, people … actually registered to vote and people that are United States citizens vote in this election.”

Any claim that elections have been rigged or stolen are unfounded.

Bannon’s remarks echo President Trump’s recent calls to “nationalize” or “take over” state-run elections.

The White House on Thursday stressed that Mr. Trump has “no formal plans” to station ICE at voting sites. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she can’t guarantee that an ICE agent won’t be around a polling location, but said she had heard no formal plans to position agents at polling places. White House advisers have declined to flesh out any logistics, instead insisting that polling sites remain state-managed.

Legal experts note that Bannon’s idea would likely violate long-standing election laws. A federal statute dating from the post–Civil War era makes it a crime to deploy troops or armed men to any site where voting is occurring, except to repel armed attacks. Under current law, the president cannot send military forces to intervene in domestic elections, and federal law enforcement officers (like ICE) are prohibited from patrolling polling places.

In addition, the Voting Rights Act and related civil‑rights laws prohibit intimidation, threats, or coercion of voters and those assisting them at any stage of the voting process, from registration through ballot counting. Courts have repeatedly recognized that even an implied threat by law enforcement near the polls, especially immigration or other federal agents, can trigger legal challenges.