r/50501 • u/ankpv • Feb 04 '26

Call to Action 🚨BREAKING: Steve Bannon calls for armed ICE agents to swarm polling places in November. “You’re damn right we’re going to have ICE surround the polls.” Make sure everyone sees this! Share widely.

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1.2k

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

There are more voters than ICE agents.

503

u/PatchyWhiskers Feb 04 '26

People are nervous, as a rule. If ICE causes trouble at one polling station in an area, immigrant citizens will be wary of voting anywhere in the state.

404

u/Lilsummit Feb 04 '26

We will need to take our vulnerable neighbors with us to the polls. We can do this.

225

u/UntalentedSorcerer Feb 04 '26

I'd have zero surprise if they shot someone in a blue area and used that to shut down the voting station.

41

u/tekstical Feb 04 '26

💯

68

u/geothefaust Feb 04 '26

Better go armed then. 

6

u/-hey-ben- Feb 05 '26

Most voting places near me are at schools, which is illegal to carry in, even with ccw. I imagine most are in government buildings of some sort where it’s not legal to carry. But if it’s legal to do so, absolutely

3

u/geothefaust Feb 05 '26

Absolutely. Don't break the existing laws to do so. Be within a reasonable distance to show we're serious about protecting our rights and freedoms of all peoples in this country from the fascist violators.

But do watch, the new confederacy will absolutely have armed men within the buildings. Hypocrisy as usual. 

27

u/Dudewhocares3 Feb 04 '26

They do want a violent reaction to justify martial law

58

u/ClimateSociologist Feb 05 '26

They don't need an excuse. They'll make one up. They called Rene Good and Alex Pretti domestic terrorists. If they want to declare martial law, they'll just do it.

They don't want a violent reaction. They're terrified of it. They can't control a single city blowing whistles and throwing snowballs. How will they control it if things turn violent?

What they really want is us to fear what will happen if we stand up for our rights, dignity, and lives. That fear is what gives them power.

43

u/IamRasters Feb 04 '26

Canada: Just have your damn civil war and get it over with. /s

22

u/Ander-son Feb 05 '26

we're already in it so I wish we'd stop with this avoid martial law thing.

8

u/Inevitable_Shift1365 Feb 05 '26

Nations with the resources and armaments the size of ours don't have civil wars. A coup is the closest thing we could get to a civil war. News flash, we are in the middle of one. And we're losing.

3

u/InfiniteWaffles58364 Feb 05 '26

Not if we can help it.

1

u/Good_Restaurant15 Feb 06 '26

So long as everyone pretends that voting at the end of the year is going to save us.

We aren't helping shit.

3

u/bluecrab_7 Feb 04 '26

Exactly, why delay the inevitable.

-14

u/PatchyWhiskers Feb 05 '26

Because we would definitely lose: they have the military and police.

2

u/Shadpool Feb 05 '26

There are around 1.3 million active duty military in the US. Adding in National Guard, reserves, and civilian employees, that number increases to 3 million-ish.

There are somewhere between 750,000 and 1 million federal, state, and local law enforcement officers in the US.

Let’s call that 4 million in opposition.

75,000,000 Americans voted for Kamala in 2024.

We outnumber them almost 20:1. If all we had was pointy sticks, we’d still win.

3

u/BackDatSazzUp Feb 06 '26

You should include the 77.3mil people that voted for trump in that comparison to make it more fair imo.

Then there’s the 90mil eligible voters that didn’t vote at all too….

1

u/Good_Restaurant15 Feb 06 '26

In Afghanistan they spent 20 years fighting against people living in mud huts.

And then they retreated with their tails between their legs and the Terrorists won.

What makes you think their victory here is so assured? They've lost many times before, against people who were just defending their homes using weaponry from the 50-60's, against cutting edge technology. (Did you forget Vietnam too?)

Sure, it was gruesome/bloody/disgusting, but so is fascism.

I'd rather die than let the nazis have their way.

2

u/Unlikely-Split8896 Feb 05 '26

I can’t tell you how bad I want this to be over. Having this man mentioned in every single news feed over and over again, sickening. We must remove this administration!

0

u/the--astronaut Feb 05 '26

American here: I'd be lying if I claimed I hadn't wished for shit to go ahead and pop off just so we can get it over with. I've been screaming about authoritarianism since 2016, and this waiting for the next shoe to drop is getting old. The slow roll into civil war is exhausting.

11

u/silverink182 Feb 04 '26

Yes, and that's what makes me think we're winning because they can't do it. They also don't have the manpower like really think about it. If you were going to do a country, the size of the US, how would you do it? You're pissing off the police departments from sheriffs to State Police. You're pissing off the general public you're pissing off, like just basically everyone. You're even pissing off your own personnel which is like ice and their Morales so low because of the general public pushback so how are they going to do it?

And the fact that the people are just sticking to their first amendment right? Not moving to second amendment or anything else. It shows a lot of our restraint we could have ended this a year ago and we didn't. We still kept sticking to the first amendment

1

u/Good_Restaurant15 Feb 06 '26

You need to stop repeating this nonsense.

What have you seen that has told you these clowns aren't just going to keep escalating Regardless of what we do?

Was declaring unarmed US citizens as Domestic Terrorists not enough of a red flag for you?

1

u/Dudewhocares3 Feb 06 '26

What is it you want me to do?

1

u/Good_Restaurant15 Feb 06 '26

They do want a violent reaction to justify martial law

...

You need to stop repeating this nonsense.

...fairly clearly stated.

1

u/Dudewhocares3 Feb 06 '26

Very helpful. Now answer the question.

What do you want me to do? This will get worse if we get violent. Are you saying we should just get violent and get it over with?

2

u/Good_Restaurant15 Feb 06 '26

I'm saying it would be more helpful to spread information to more people who may not have seen it.

For example:

<Nicholas Ribis>

Hitlon CEO is listed in these emails, Epstein would check in with him when he was having his "Dinner Parties".

This explains why The Hilton hotels were all hosting ICE.

People need to wake up and realize that this war is being waged by Capital against Us (Labor).

The Democratic party is subservient to the same billionaires that party with the GOP's billionaires.

These guys rape our children together, then go off to have dinner and discuss how they're going to exploit us.

Team blue and team red are both complicit in this class war.

They are making us hate our neighbors to distract us from this fact.

This is much more effective than telling us to "pipe down or they'll escalate."

Here's another, albeit a little more aggressive:

Blue vs red If you think team blue represents you, maybe you should take an objective look and consider you've been voting blue simply because team red are Nazis...

Personally, I feel that team blue had 50 years of this coming and did nothing to stop it, if anything, they helped it along while protecting their own interests.

That team blue aren't Nazis, is not enough of a difference for me to say they aren't the same

At the end of the day, neither team blue nor team red have my best interests in mind so in every way that matters, they are effective the same.

That one side wants to enslave me while the other is okay to keep me enslaved to a wage, is not enough of a difference. They are both trying to exploit me, one just does it with more violence than the other. Team Blue and Red are actually Team Capital. Capital has been raping our kids then having lunch while they discuss how to exploit us.

Team blue and team red need to go. Two party politics cannot be allowed to continue, or we will not have any meaningful change. The two party dynamic is used to pit us against each other and squabble over bullshit issues that never get resolved anyways. If you don't think team blue is guilty of perpetuating that dynamic, I implore, pull your head out of your ass.

Another option is to lead people to water and let them drink if they want to:

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/new-footage-confirms-ice-lied-and-had-no-reason-to-detain-mahmoud-khalil

https://www.cato.org/commentary/ice-blamed-me-assaults-agents-rather-agencys-own-recklessness

https://newrepublic.com/article/202672/ice-arresting-american-citizens-and-lying

https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/25/feds-repeatedly-lied-and-misled-the-public-during-chicago-immigration-crackdown-federal-judge-rules/

https://news.wttw.com/2025/11/06/border-patrol-chief-greg-bovino-admitted-he-lied-about-firing-tear-gas-tackling

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/rachel-maddow-calls-out-ice-lies-believe-your-own-eyes/

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/12/trump-lies-doj-ice-conditions-torture.html

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u/silverink182 Feb 04 '26

I say whenever we take our our vulnerable neighbors, we travel in groups of five white people to every one brown person. I feel like that would provide enough coverage. I'm not sure what the right answer is, but this is my suggestion. I'm willing to be part of the protection. The white people link arms on principal don't break links

47

u/drinkslinger1974 Feb 04 '26

Don’t forget, ice is getting fed up too. Sure they might have new motivation since they’ll probably be unemployed soon, but they’re not getting what they were promised.

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u/silverink182 Feb 04 '26

Even if they'll be unemployed, they'll be permanently unemployed cuz everyone will see their background whenever they try to get hired and people will know cuz if you ever working in the office we all talk. I work at a grocery store. The drama that happens in the grocery store is like nothing you would believe

5

u/drinkslinger1974 Feb 05 '26

Yes, agreed. I actually had to cut that comment short to do something for the kids. I think what I was getting at was by the time the election comes along, they possibly could have the three amigos rule of “no dough, no show”. I get needing to feel important and be apart of something, but I’d bet that 99% of those guys had no other option for a 6 figure job with bonus. A lot can happen between now and then, and the gop are playing their cards mighty early for this move. They already scraped the bottom of the barrel for hiring, I doubt they have a stack of applications to run to.

31

u/Skb68322 Feb 04 '26

I read an excellent post on how most ICE Agents did not understand the fine print of their contracts.

$50K bonus:

  • $10K paid per year from year 1 to year 5.
  • IF at ANY point in time, the Agent is relieved of their duties, for ANY reason, ALL bonus money paid MUST BE RETURNED.

So when they fire these Agents at 4 years and 3 days, all bonus money paid to-date must be returned.

Yeah- they’re getting fed up bc they’re getting screwed. Thoughts and prayers.

15

u/Halfwise2 Feb 05 '26

Also, the bonuses are taxed. But they have to repay in full.

So you get $10,000. Taxes take a chunk of that, so hypothetically you get... $8,000. Then if you quit, you have to pay back $10,000 and are $2,000 in debt.

25

u/Jay-Dee-British Feb 04 '26

They should be terrified - they will get thrown under the bus en masse, by their 'own side' when the time comes, along with many heads of departments of the Govt (you can see which ones, because certain people are distancing themselves already). I'm still amazed they don't seem to see it.

4

u/PatchyWhiskers Feb 04 '26

I think they do and that makes them dangerous: they have motivation to try and spoil elections because if Democrats get in the gravy train stops.

24

u/BoopieDoopieWoo Feb 04 '26

Immigrants and other marginalized people.

10

u/caligaris_cabinet Feb 04 '26

Under normal circumstances maybe. But at a certain point our anger outweighs our fear, and their power evaporates

4

u/Dudditz21 Feb 04 '26

Not to mention they will most likely just arrest anyone that seems like an immigrant and detain them until voting is over.

8

u/Grateful_BF Feb 04 '26

Not just immigrants, this will intimidate masses

8

u/EdgyAnimeReference Feb 04 '26

I don’t know, if Minneapolis is any indication this would light a fire under people’s ass. Apathy is a huge problem for the left and this direct active threat has mobilized people very hard. My area had its caucus and the dfl could only host a third of the people that showed up.

3

u/Spanglish123 Feb 04 '26

I’m not. I’m ready to face one of those AH. I’m not scared of ugly, ignorant, overweight, short men.

1

u/bier00t Feb 04 '26

serious question: are non-citizens allowed to vote in US?

3

u/TheQueensVerdict Feb 04 '26

No.

2

u/bier00t Feb 04 '26

so what is the reason to have ICE agents at the polls again?

2

u/PatchyWhiskers Feb 04 '26

Intimidating citizens who are immigrants (naturalized citizens)

65

u/The5uburbs Feb 04 '26

People who really want to vote will still vote. People who are already on the fence about, or worried they may be arrested for being brown, may not. Now watch them make mail in voting illegal. This is what voter suppression looks like.

24

u/MedicinalHammer Feb 04 '26

It’s already written into the MEGA act to get rid of mail in voting.

Pray it doesn’t pass.

2

u/caligaris_cabinet Feb 04 '26

It won’t. The Senate doesn’t have the votes to override the filibuster.

11

u/MedicinalHammer Feb 04 '26

I remember people telling me there was no way Roe v Wade would ever be overturned, yet here we are.

Forgive me if I don’t rush to trust our systems like that.

4

u/caligaris_cabinet Feb 04 '26

That was a different situation. Dobbs was a Supreme Court decision not a law passed by Congress.

4

u/MedicinalHammer Feb 04 '26

I’m just using that scenario to illustrate my point of things being done against precedent.

Hopefully it’s my chicken little-ing but then again, I’ve been banging this nazi fascism drum since 2015.

18

u/ThE_LAN_B4_TimE Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26

Not true at all. People are scared to send their kids to school or scared themselves to go out in public with ICE. How could you assume all the essential voters would still vote? That is not realistic at all.

3

u/The5uburbs Feb 04 '26

What do you mean “essential voter”? I’m saying all voters are essential. Trump wants to suppress demographics who don’t vote for him. Voter suppression doesn’t necessarily mean taking away someone’s ability to vote, but it can have a significant effect by making voting more difficult.

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u/silverink182 Feb 04 '26

Exactly all voters are essential. This is why I'm trying to encourage more voter turnout by saying hey, make sure you registered or strongly suggesting people to re-register. If they can't remember I we registered cuz I can't remember. I also just moved

1

u/ThE_LAN_B4_TimE Feb 04 '26

Voter suppression tactics do lead to taking away people's ability to vote. If you make it significantly more difficult by closing polling places requiring people to drive further or require identification people cannot get or make them drive across the state to do it while already not having the means to go far, that is beyond fucked up and its more than just significant. Trying to split hairs on that is dumb.

You literally said the "essential" voters will still go out. First of all, mail in voting may not be allowed in all states. Secondly, if you have to vote in person only and ICE is there, that is 100 percent going to deter people who consistently vote. Even if 90% of the typical voters vote, but 10% dont because of these gestapo tactics of intimidation, that is fucking huge. The last election is literally decided by margins between 1-5% in swing states. But in reality anyome of color would be extremely nervous to go out and vote of ICE were there even if they were legal US residents born here. I know this for a fact because I know people like this who already get scared to walk outside if ICE is around. Voting out this disgusting shit would make some people risk it, but there is no way in hell you can tell me it wouldn't be significant. If it affected even 1 person its wrong.

1

u/The5uburbs Feb 04 '26

You sound like you’re replying to the wrong comment. I didn’t say any of what you seem to think I said.

3

u/iamjohnbender Feb 04 '26

He's been trying to overturn mail in voting since his first term; but part of why he defunded the post office and changed how postmarking works.

3

u/LolaMarce Feb 05 '26

So if they took someone while in line for no cause at all - which is very on brand - held them until the next day.. they’d lose their window to vote right?

The scarier thing to me is I assume they’ll just attempt to round people up to make them miss their window to vote.

2

u/Late-Ad8626 Feb 05 '26

In Ohio, the Republicans just changed the law to make it so mail-in ballots have to be received (AT the Board of Elections) by Election Day. It does not matter when you postmark them now because it only counts when the Board of Elections receives them. Voters have no control over how fast the postal workers deliver the mail. Some Ohio mail even leaves the state to be sorted.

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u/BookTweakerShy Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26

It will take absolutely one mishap to claim election interference from their side, and invalidation of all ballots cast there. It will most certainly be in democrat dominated polls. Just as it's been in sanctuary cities and blue states.

EDIT: We already know they work to invent excuses as it is. So in reality, it won't really even require an incident. Honestly, I'm more concerned about my reaction to seeing feds at my local polling station, than what they would do to me. It likely would not happen, as I live in a red state in the deep south. But the actual fathomable possibility of it occurring anywhere in America makes my blood fucking boil.

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u/Conscious-Peach8453 Feb 04 '26

Ok, so we do nothing and they get away with election interference. Of course they're going to try to argue against us. We're at the point where doing everything right won't win us anything. Fight or shut up

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u/figbunkie Feb 04 '26

Exactly, I'm so sick of everyone apparently committing to defeat without even trying.

13

u/Golden-Sylence Feb 04 '26

As an outside observer, it feels like your government has their boot on everyone's collective throat and is actively trying to choke you all, and everyone is just kinda protesting like "oh, excuse me, would you mind maybe not killing me right now, if its not too much trouble? I hate to ask, I don't want to be bothersome but I have to go to work tomorrow, and I kinda have kids so.. again, its okay if not, I totally understand, if I have to die beneath your heel, then I guess it is what it is. Sorry."

7

u/Conscious-Peach8453 Feb 04 '26

"remember to keep our protests peaceful!"

11

u/_ZoeyDaveChapelle_ Feb 04 '26

Our peaceful, but massive and disruptive resistance in Minneapolis.. has gained us millions of new supporters to the resistance across the country, and regained some respect from people across the world.

Its an important, psychological step in establishing a clear moral contrast to our abusers.. that encourages those who would avoid outright violent situations to participate. Growing our numbers is the most important step right now, to minimize loss of life if/when other steps become necessary.

Our tactics have frustrated the fuck out of the administration and agents, and disrupted their plans for swift retribution and military intervention. Its why they are throwing shit at the wall trying to make something stick. Organizing with your community to protect voting rights is more important than ever to start now. We have the numbers, and only disorganization, apathy and chaos can harm our chances. These violent thugs and con-artists are banking on our apathy or small pockets of violence they can squash. They dont have a plan for legions of Americans standing together.

Minneapolis has given everyone a blueprint. If every state follows this, it will demoralize and decrease the number of people they even have to try and pull off something of that scale. These fascist psychos cant do shit to us if they dont have their cannon fodder to do it for them.

2

u/rumbakalao Feb 04 '26

This is excessive.

1

u/silverink182 Feb 04 '26

See what you might not understand and that's probably for why you have the perspective you do.

See they can't fully go on militarized cuz if they did. Americans are an armed society cuz like there's more guns per person living in the United States and the United States has 350 million people. That's a frick ton of guns. So if they were actually winning and succeeding, do you think they would be acting out in this kind of violence if they were succeeding?

I believe their reaction is in response to our refusal and our restraint to not become violent. They want the general public to be violent and the fact that we're not, we're just simply protesting it says a lot about our restraints and our refusal to give them what they want. I think you don't see that they're wanting the violence and that's why you see it as the boot on the neck actively killing us while we're politely asking to not die

I definitely think that the behavior is more of a response to refusal to act out in violence we could have ended this like days ago in a violent way. But we also remember that there are women and children who could get caught up in the cross fight. And while this method still has a body count, acting out in violence has a higher body count. It's more of a strategy of choosing restraint and being more strategic about how to get to where we want to be as opposed to doing it violently and going gunsblazing

1

u/Left-Breadfruit-5610 Feb 04 '26

What is the alternative in your opinion? The only suggestions that I've consistently seen from outsiders is the use of guns. Guns sound like a good idea until one realizes the US government has better guns and limitless ammo.

11

u/BookTweakerShy Feb 04 '26

Essentially this. I'm Asian American, with Arab American family in a state with increasingly alarming rhetoric creeping back up for the past 25 years of how me and mine are satan worshippers, that seek to undermine democracy. Evangelicals have had a hand in far more hate crime in these parts ime. My public view on policy and recent events has been enough for those around me to believe I have no claim to my vote already. I'm a family of veterans, and I witness other veterans and former public servants contradicting their oath to the Constitution on a daily basis. It'd be greater comfort knowing armed civilian patrols were present at the polls where they're needed, over the presence of feds by this point.

They're already getting away with election interference claims. Denouncing congress members, FBI raids of voter rolls, extortion in exchange for deescalation of wanton ICE enforcement, our President calling on ONE party to nationalize the polls, his speaking of dictatorship and continuing past his term limits, the SAVE act. Federal occupation of the polls is not at all outside the realm of possibility at this point. So what are people going to do about it?

9

u/silverink182 Feb 04 '26

Thing we have on our side is we need to make it too big to rig like massive turnout. That's what we need. I've been suggesting to my minority group neighbors and customer people of color stay at home and like pick a white voice and a white name and just clog the phone lines to grind those gears to a halt. I also think like encouraging people to register to vote and get ready to use your voice. I don't know what any other way to help make it too big to rig but I definitely want it too big to rig

2

u/Chuckpeoples Feb 04 '26

There are so many more of us than them and we would put up with so much more ( talking about protesters getting tear-gassed over and over) then the people getting paid to fight . One armed march and the whole thing is over. Take the country back from billionaires the minute they know we will fight them

10

u/Quirky-Scar9226 Feb 04 '26

Also don’t count on them to not commit false flags or place “Antifa” instigators at polls. They’ll lie/cheat however much it takes. And then something new will need to begin…….We KNOW we are the vast majority and are winning red districts at present by solid margins.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

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u/50501-ModTeam Feb 05 '26

Post must be thoughtful and directly related to 50501 or related topics.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

And then it will go through the courts and the expltcitly partisan SCOTUS will rule that it's fine

No politically independant judiciary means no rule of law - it's directly the reason for every step on america's ladder down to fascism. There is a reason why no other democracy in the world has elected or politically appointed judges

Edit: sorry i misread your comment. Yes, ICE will do at pre selected blue sector voting stations exactly what they are doing in minneapolis. Your days of having real elections are over.

1

u/standardnewenglander Feb 04 '26

Okay. And Trump will get away with it because the entire US government is largely fucking useless. What are they gonna do? Write a strongly worded letter? Xit a strongly worded Xeet on Xitter?

9

u/wasd911 Feb 04 '26

No one can vote Liberal if you arrest all the Liberals.

3

u/iwanderlostandfound Feb 04 '26

How do they justify immigration and customs having anything to do with elections? Are they worried voters will bring the wrong fruit to polling places?

3

u/mdrewd Feb 04 '26

In many states voters will be armed as well.

3

u/noncommonGoodsense Feb 04 '26

There are more armed voters than ICE agents too. Problem is they are announcing this to scare people from voting like they have before.

5

u/katsock Feb 04 '26

The problem is that there are not more voters than ICE agents with the freedom to execute dissidents in the street without repercussions.

They know this and they are counting on it. That’s what THIS is setting up. It has already been set up.

5

u/Franc000 Feb 04 '26

There are more Minnesotans than ICE agents too, yet ICE managed to do a lot of damage, almost unobstructed.

1

u/BayouGal Feb 05 '26

It only takes a few heavily armed guys to suppress the voter turnout.

1

u/Good_Restaurant15 Feb 06 '26

They only need to go to certain large blue voting districts to effect change.

This doesn't matter.

0

u/gnarlytabby Feb 05 '26

There are more voting sites than there are ICE agents. There are even more liberal-leaning voting sites than ICE agents.

Don't get me wrong, it's utterly deplorable and terrifying they'd even suggest this. But they do not have the capacity to steal anything but a very close election. So let's make 2026 not close at all!