Steve Bannon Calls ICE at Airports a Good ‘Test Run’ for Deployment to 2026 Midterm Polls

Right-wing podcaster and former Trump White House political strategist Steve Bannon on Monday said that President Donald Trump's deployment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to airports was a preview of what could be expected later this year at polling places across the country.

During a Monday episode of his "War Room" podcast, Bannon said that the Trump administration "can use what's happening with these ICE [agents] at the airports, we can use this as a test run, as a test case, to really perfect ICE's involvement in the 2026 midterm elections."

Bannon's guest, MAGA influencer Mike Davis, agreed that ICE should be sent to polling places during this year's midterms to ensure no undocumented immigrants are casting ballots.

"If you're an American citizen, you should be happy ICE is there," Davis said. "So you don't have illegal aliens canceling out your vote."

There is no evidence that undocumented immigrants vote in any significant numbers in US elections.

As The New York Times reported in January, the Department of Homeland Security during Trump's second term has been conducting a wide-ranging review of voter registration data and so far has found almost no evidence of non-citizens voting in past elections.

"Out of 49.5 million voter registrations that have been checked, the department referred around 10,000 cases to Homeland Security Investigations for further investigation of noncitizenship, or roughly .02% of the names processed," reported the Times, which added that the administration didn't specify how many of the potential "illegal" voters had actually cast ballots in elections.

Even so, Bannon and other Trump allies have been floating sending ICE agents to serve as election monitors, even though they have no legal jurisdiction to do so.

In February, Bannon predicted that "we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November," which many critics warned was a signal for a coming mass voter suppression campaign.

“This is a red alert moment," said US Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in the wake of Bannon's comments last month. "We have to start working to protect polling places from Trump’s paramilitary ICE goons before it’s too late."

Trump has also floated getting the US military involved in elections, telling the New York Times in January that he regretted not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines after his 2020 election loss to former President Joe Biden.