PolitiFact is reporting that a fabricated video made with generative artificial intelligence showing immigration agents at a voting site spread across social media, with users claiming it depicts what President Donald Trump wants for the November midterm elections. It said Trump administration officials have said they have no plans to send agents to precincts en masse but have not ruled out sending officers or agents to a voting site under specific scenarios. Federal law largely prohibits armed and civil law enforcement activity at polling places, PolitiFact said.
PolitiFact said Democrats, voting rights groups and workers unions filed multiple lawsuits in September asking judges to rule that the administration cannot deploy agents or armed officers at the polls. It said a September University of California San Diego poll showed 40% of respondents, and higher numbers of minorities, thought it very or somewhat likely that immigration officers would appear at the polls in their area, with Republicans less inclined to think so than Democrats.
PolitiFact said some election officials and activists are training for the possibility, while Democratic lawmakers have asked administration officials about potential deployment plans and filed legislation to prevent troops or agents at the polls. It said the speculation is fueled by Trump's efforts to find noncitizen voters, a summer surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests, and the president's murky words. PolitiFact said Trump did not dismiss the idea of sending the National Guard or ICE to polling locations when asked in May, saying he would do anything necessary to ensure honest elections. It said a White House spokesperson referred it to February comments by Karoline Leavitt, then Trump's press secretary, who said she had not heard Trump consider sending ICE to the polls, called it a "silly hypothetical question," and added she could not guarantee an ICE agent would not be around a polling location in November.
Separately, PolitiFact is reporting that weeks before the midterm elections the Trump administration released taxpayer-funded ads prominently featuring Trump promoting his agenda, and Democratic lawmakers called them illegal propaganda. It said a group of Democratic lawmakers wrote to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles saying the ads violate federal law and should be taken off the air. PolitiFact said the White House defended the videos as public service announcements, comparing them with past administrations' PSAs, but experts in campaign and government law told PolitiFact they are not convinced.