Local prosecutors warn Trump: "If you send ICE to the polls, we'll put them in jail."

A nationwide coalition of district attorneys has come together to protect polling places from federal agents sent to carry out voter intimidation.

Donald Trump refused to rule out sending ICE agents to the polls in November. So prosecutors across America are sending a message: FAFO.

Today, a coalition of locally elected district attorneys and prosecutors from across the United States have officially put the Trump administration on notice: any federal agent who shows up at a polling place in violation of state or federal law will be investigated and prosecuted under the laws of the jurisdiction in which they act. And they will be jailed, if needed.

The announcement, made by the Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach — “FAFO” — was first reported by Politico and comes a week after President Trump refused to rule out deploying ICE officers to polling locations during the November elections. Legal scholars across the political spectrum had already warned that such a deployment would constitute unlawful voter intimidation under federal civil rights statutes and state election codes. This morning, the prosecutors who would actually have to bring those charges stepped forward to say they are prepared to do so.

FAFO’s founding membership reads as a map of jurisdictions that have already absorbed the brunt of federal overreach in the past year: Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Tucson, Austin, Dallas, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Fairfax, and Arlington, among others. More district attorneys are expected to sign on in the weeks ahead. The coalition was incubated by DEFIANCE.org and was spun off recently as an independent nonprofit organization at FederalOverreach.org.

The news was teased last week on an episode of DEFIANCE Daily, as prosecutors reminded listeners that the “FAFO” name itself was a pointed rejoinder to the Trump administration’s frequent threats to its perceived foes: “F**k Around, Find Out.”

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who joined the announcement, delivered the morning’s most pointed warning.

“Anyone — federal agent or otherwise — who shows up at a polling place in Philadelphia to intimidate voters is going to find out what ‘find out’ means,” Krasner said. “A federal badge is not a license to violate the Constitution, and it is not a shield from state criminal law. We have prosecuted police officers who broke the law. We have prosecuted public officials who broke the law. We will prosecute ICE agents who break the law. There is no category of American who gets to operate above it.”

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, whose office has already filed charges against federal agents in Minnesota and is currently litigating against the Department of Homeland Security over the administration’s deployment of federal forces in Minneapolis, said FAFO members are preparing now to ensure no ambiguity about what will follow a November deployment.

“The right to vote without fear of armed government agents at the polls is not negotiable, and it is not subject to the whims of a president,” Moriarty said. “Federal law makes voter intimidation a crime. Minnesota law makes voter intimidation a crime. If ICE officers are dispatched to polling places in Hennepin County to frighten voters away from the ballot box, my office will investigate, and we will charge. Every prosecutor in this coalition is preparing for that possibility now, before November, so there is no ambiguity about the consequences.”

The legal architecture behind the coalition’s threat is well established. Under federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 594 prohibits intimidation of voters at federal elections, and 52 U.S.C. § 20511 imposes criminal penalties for interference with voter registration and voting. State statutes in nearly every FAFO member jurisdiction independently criminalize voter intimidation, assault, false imprisonment, and abuse of authority — charges that can be brought against federal agents acting outside the scope of their lawful duties.

The announcement lands amid a documented escalation in the Trump administration’s use of federal law enforcement for domestic political purposes. ICE and other DHS components have been deployed to American cities over the objections of state and local officials. Earlier this year, state election records were seized in Georgia, and the president has publicly signaled the potential use of the Insurrection Act and other emergency authorities to exert federal control over states and even election administration.

Against that backdrop, FAFO represents the first organized effort by elected prosecutors to draw a line at the state level and to put the line in writing.

DEFIANCE.org, which incubated the coalition before its spinoff, has positioned itself in the past year as one of the central organizing hubs of the pro-democracy “rapid response” to the second Trump administration. The organization has launched a series of campaigns aimed at federal accountability, including the FAFO project, efforts to support whistleblowers sounding the alarm about unlawful presidential orders, lawsuits against Trump’s unconstitutional actions, a nationwide response network to shut down ICE secret prisons, and more.

The coalition is expected to announce additional jurisdictions in the coming weeks, and members have indicated they will hold a joint briefing in Washington in advance of the November elections.

Whether the Trump administration follows through on its refusal to rule out an ICE deployment to polling places is, for now, an open question. What is no longer open is the question of what will happen if it does. The prosecutors in the FAFO coalition are telegraphing to Trump and his agency heads — in the only language that matters in a courtroom — that no one in this country is above the law, and that a uniform is not a hall pass to commit crimes against American voters.

Your friend, in defiance,

Miles Taylor

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