ICE targets skateboarding store for helping register swing-state voters: report

Federal immigration investigators appear to have gone after Zumiez, the youth-oriented skate shop with locations in malls nationwide, after the company backed efforts to get people registered and voting, according to internal government records.

The documents, obtained by the nonprofit Democracy Forward and reported on by liberal elections outlet Democracy Docket, list Zumiez among several hundred organizations, the bulk of them nonprofits, that Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities scrutinized over the past year while looking for noncitizen voters on the administration's behalf.

Homeland Security Investigations marked the company for "further investigation" in Pennsylvania, one of the states where congressional contests could determine which party controls Congress. The reason for the Pennsylvania focus is unclear: Zumiez is headquartered in Washington state, though it operates 20 locations in the Keystone State. The company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

However, Democracy Docket put forward a clear theory: Zumiez works with Voto Latino and Skate to the Polls to help young people register and vote. OpenSecrets data show its political giving in the 2024 cycle went entirely to Democratic committees and groups, totaling nearly $2 million, with no money going to Republicans.

The records surface as the administration tries to substantiate President Donald Trump's unproven claim that large numbers of noncitizens vote. Its probes so far have uncovered few illegal votes, nowhere near enough to affect a race.

Democracy Docket has separately reported that ICE examined hundreds of voter registration groups and passed voter information to the data analytics firm Palantir, co-founded by Antichrist-obsessed MAGA billionaire Peter Thiel.

Trump administration figures, including FBI Director Kash Patel, have refused to commit to not sending armed and uniformed personnel to polling places, triggering fears they could move to interfere in November's midterm elections by intimidating voters.