The city of Denver, along with several groups, sued the Trump administration Thursday, seeking to block U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who are armed from polling sites during the upcoming midterm elections.

In fact, there are no official orders from the federal government to station or deploy armed immigration officers at polling places, although a Homeland Security official recently suggested they could do so under special circumstances — but not to verify voters’ identification.

Additionally, federal laws already prohibit stationing “troops or armed men” by military or federal officials at voting places except when needed “to repel armed enemies of the United States.” Federal laws also bar military members from interfering “in any manner with an election officer’s discharge of his duties.”

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., leans heavily on those prohibitions, though it does not cite specific cases where armed federal agents entered or visited polling centers.

The plaintiffs state that ICE officers’ presence could intimidate and deter voters, thereby interfering with local officials’ ability to administer elections.

“The specter of armed officers at polling places threatens the freedom of this upcoming election,” the complaint says. “It places voters in fear that they will be confronted by armed federal immigration enforcement officers if they choose to cast a ballot.” 

“The right to vote, and to do so without fear of intimidation, is fundamental to our democracy and to being an American,” said Denver Mayor Mike Johnston in a statement provided by Democracy Forward, a national legal organization working with the plaintiffs. “Stationing ICE agents near polling places is only meant to scare people and suppress votes. We’ll fight tooth and nail to prevent it.”

Speaking to reporters during a Manhattan news event on Sept. 1, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin had suggested that, while ICE agents would not be at polling sites to check voter identification, they could enter polling places under special circumstances.

“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,” he said, adding, “ICE’S job is immigration, customs enforcement.”

“That’s their job,” he also added, “if we’re serving a warrant, we will be where we need to be.”

The plaintiffs assert that with that statement, “Mullin confirmed and clarified the administration’s policy of authorizing armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to go to polling places — not to repel armed enemies of the United States, but to conduct civil immigration and customs enforcement operations, including serving warrants and detaining individuals suspected of being unlawfully present in the United States.”

Mullin, along with the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and David Venturella, in his official capacity as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has been named as defendants.

Federal law prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections.

There had been recent cases of noncitizens being registered to vote or voting. In New Jersey, about 6,600 noncitizens were registered, the result of a software glitch in that state’s automatic voter registration system. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said about 400 of those noncitizens had cast ballots.

And in Colorado, Secretary of State Jena Griswold, the state’s top election official, mistakenly sent 20,000 voter registration mailers to noncitizens in 2022.

The lawsuit follows efforts by the Trump administration to restrict the mailing of ballots to only American citizens on an eligible voters list.

Trump’s order mandates the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to create those lists — to be given to states — and bars the U.S. Postal Service from mailing ballots to people who are not on the lists of “enrolled” voters.

On Sept.4, a federal judge extended the prohibition against the U.S. Postal Service implementing Trump’s order, just as the first states begin sending out mail ballots.

The decision from U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani in Boston to issue a preliminary injunction replaces a temporary order she had granted blocking the Postal Service’s plan until Sept. 10.

The Trump administration already appealed Talwani’s restraining order, and it will likely appeal the latest order as well.

The administration is running out of time to make big changes in voting procedures. North Carolina began sending out its first mail ballots Friday and more states will swiftly follow. 

Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul López told The Denver Gazette he’s not surprised by any of the recent court challenges and that the lawsuit just “underscores what’s already illegal.”

“To be quite honest, it’s been a slow pitch softball that we’ve been watching, and we’re ready to send over the bleachers,” López said. “It is already illegal for any federal agents, or armed agents, to interfere with any election or to intimidate voters from participating in an election.”

López insisted that every executive order or any attempt to interfere with elections is intended to cast doubt on American democracy.

“All these things that they’re trying to do are, simply, to erode faith in American democracy,” he said. “It’s an attack on democracy itself, and it is designed to discourage voters from participating in this election.”

The lawsuit case number is 26-CV-03157. The Associated Press contributed to this story.