TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Witnesses in Florida have reported seeing federal immigration agents outside early voting sites in two separate incidents this week, raising concern because of a federal law that prohibits the presence of armed officers or troops near polling places, Scripps News reported on Friday, October 23.

Source: Scripps News via 95.3 The Beach

The first incident began on Monday, when two Customs and Border Protection vehicles were spotted parked outside the busiest early voting site in Leon County, at the Northeast Branch Library, according to county election supervisor Mark S. Earley. The vehicles stayed for about 10 minutes and then left, Earley said. His office received no calls from voters about the incident, but Earley said he filed a complaint with the FBI because voters may experience intimidation.

Source: Scripps News via 95.3 The Beach

On Friday, Earley's office released an update saying the county sheriff's office and the FBI investigated and learned the vehicles were assigned to a team of agents normally stationed in south Florida who had recently been assigned to another state. As they drove north, they stopped in Leon County at the last polling place before leaving the state, realising they would not be in Florida to vote on Election Day. "Mistakenly, the agents thought they could vote at that location, which is incorrect since they were not Leon County voters," Earley said. "Upon realizing this, they immediately left the early voting site. I accept this account of the incident... I am satisfied this was an isolated instance of agents attempting to vote before they left Florida."

Source: Scripps News via 95.3 The Beach (Leon County update)

A CBP spokesperson gave Scripps News a matching account: "This was not an immigration enforcement action. These CBP officers were traveling in their government vehicle from Florida to Brownsville, Texas, in support of an out-of-state deployment. While en route, the officers, who were out of uniform, briefly stopped at the polling location to ask whether they could vote early before departing the state. Election officials advised them that they were eligible to vote only in their home county. The officers thanked the staff and promptly departed."

Source: Scripps News via 95.3 The Beach (CBP statement)

The second incident was separate. On Tuesday, a Key Largo community group posted video showing masked and armed federal agents conducting what appeared to be a traffic stop outside the Murray Nelson Government Center, an early voting site in Monroe County. Monroe County election supervisor Sherri Hodies told Keys Weekly she spoke with CBP and was told agents were trying to pull over a suspect who turned toward the government center, and her office was investigating, Scripps reported. Reporting summarised by Workers Rights News, citing the News Service of Florida, said Hodies opened an investigation after the reports and contacted federal officials.

Source: Workers Rights News summary citing News Service of Florida

CBP told Scripps News that on October 20, Border Patrol agents from the Marathon Station conducted a vehicle stop on US Highway 1 in Key Largo as part of a targeted immigration enforcement operation to arrest Arwiin Pillay, whom CBP described as a criminal illegal alien from Malaysia with prior charges for drug possession and battery who had overstayed his admission — CBP's characterisation, stated as the agency's allegation. "During the vehicle stop, the driver pulled into a nearby parking lot that happened to be adjacent to a polling location. Agents arrested the criminal illegal alien and departed the area shortly thereafter," CBP said.

Source: Scripps News via 95.3 The Beach (CBP statement on Key Largo)

Trump administration officials have repeatedly said there are no plans to send ICE or other federal agents to polling places, but have also added that the administration would not suspend regular law enforcement operations just because they happened to be in the vicinity of a polling place, Scripps reported. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters last month the only reason agents would be at polling places is if there is a threat to that polling place or they were serving a warrant on someone they had been actively tracking down.

Source: Scripps News via 95.3 The Beach