Top Democrats House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are facing backlash after demanding that taxpayer money not be used for immigration enforcement near so-called “sensitive locations,” including polling places. And that raises a very simple question: why would illegal aliens need special protection at voting sites in the first place?
Jeffries and Schumer sent a letter to Republican leadership on Wednesday calling for changes to Department of Homeland Security immigration enforcement as part of funding negotiations. One of their demands is a ban on using federal funds for enforcement near “sensitive locations.”
Those locations include “medical facilities, schools, child-care facilities, churches, polling places, courts, etc.,” according to their letter. Most of that list might sound familiar. But polling places? That’s where eyebrows shot up.
The push is not isolated. RedState’s Sister Toldjah reported last week on similar efforts in Virginia, where Democrats introduced a bill, HB 1442, to prohibit “any person from performing any act for the purpose or in furtherance of enforcement of federal immigration laws within 40 feet of any building, or part thereof, used as a polling place.”
The bill would also block immigration enforcement at locations where election results are being counted or where recounts take place. Because apparently the ballot box now needs an “ICE-free zone.”
That leads to some unavoidable questions: Why are Democrats so determined to keep immigration enforcement away from polling places? Why would illegal immigrants be anywhere near a polling location to begin with? Those are, of course, rhetorical questions — but the silence from Democrats is loud.
Schumer has already labeled the SAVE Act, passed by the House in April 2025 and now awaiting action in the Senate, as racist and “dead on arrival.” The bill aims to protect U.S. elections from illegal voting.
Republicans say they want secure elections and lawful voting. Democrats, meanwhile, appear focused on making sure immigration enforcement stays far away from the ballot box. As Sister Toldjah put it, “Democrats are again showing us exactly who they are, and we should believe them.”
The contrast could not be clearer: one side wants to protect American elections, and the other seems determined to protect people who should not be involved in them at all. The good news is that voters are paying attention, and the push for election integrity is stronger than ever.
