ICE activity is booming before the midterms. The same goes for voter turnout. : NPR
Federal agents walk near the scene where a man was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent during an operation in the Bronx borough of New York on October 8, 2026, according to local media and police.
Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images
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Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images
Very early Wednesday morning in Dover, New Jersey, City Councilwoman Sandra Wittner began receiving messages about immigration agents. A dozen or more were gathering outside a Walgreens, according to messages she received. Throughout the day, New Jersey’s northern neighbors saw an increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity.
And New Jersey is not alone. In the weeks leading up to the midterm elections, various cities and states across the country are reporting a notable increase in ICE activity, according to reports collected by NPR and its member stations.
“The tactics the administration is deploying in communities actually seem designed to try to intimidate voters,” says Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School. Despite this, early participation increases.
“There was definitely a lot of apprehension and fear,” Wittner recalls. “We really didn’t know if something big was going to happen. People didn’t feel very comfortable or safe.”
Wittner doesn’t know exactly who was arrested or where, which isn’t surprising: These days, it’s difficult to report on ICE crackdowns as they happen, because the Interior Department Homeland Security no longer publicly shares timely information about its operations.
NPR wrote to the agency to ask if there had been a recent increase. He responded: “ICE agents comply with our nation’s immigration laws in all 50 states, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.”
And yet, NPR and its member stations have received advice from rural Illinois,Oregon,Detroit AndCalifornia on surges in ICE enforcement, throughout the month of October.
An official in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office, who was not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that he had seen an increase in ICE activity in the city.
“We are definitely seeing an uptick in activity, and have been since the summer,” says a member of a group of neighbor volunteers in New York. She asked NPR not to use her name because she fears retaliation. His group goes to the scene of an ICE operation, documents it, reminds those detained of their rights and alerts neighbors.
“Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a lot of large-scale operations, or what we call mass raids, where multiple officers go to one location and then another,” she said.
On the other side of the country, Troy Brynelson, Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter reported a similar trend. “What we saw in early October and what we saw continue, at least anecdotally throughout this month, is that ICE activity has really picked up in Portland.” Brynelson says it seems to be concentrated in commercial areas. “I would say it’s a slight uptick from what we saw over the summer.”
Juan Proaño of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a civil rights organization, says he is concerned because this is happening so close to the midterm elections. “It’s not about ICE at the polling place itself, it’s about ICE within the perimeter of the polling place,” he says.
“The massive crackdowns could take place outside the polling stations, but with social media and the news, it could be enough to deter someone from voting.”
The Brennan Center’s Weiser says there’s no evidence the raids affect turnout. On the contrary, she says there has been an increase in early voting in minority communities across the country. “The good news is that it’s not working. Americans are ignoring this and we’re not seeing a significant impact on turnout. And we’re actually seeing huge increases in turnout in communities of color, in Latino communities and in all communities that have been targeted by ICE and DHS.”
Still, she says election intimidation is illegal and should be reported.
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