House candidate Hois on ICE at polls debate: ‘Kaczmarek knows illegals are – and have been – voting’

Laura Hois, candidate for Illinois House District 81, said DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek’s warnings to ICE amount to an admission that non-citizens have been voting in DuPage County and that her office has been operating as a partisan actor rather than a neutral election administrator for years.

“Clerk Jean Kaczmarek’s public warnings to ICE not to appear at polling places show she has something to hide,” Hois told the DuPage Policy Journal. “Kaczmarek knows illegals are – and have been – voting in DuPage County.”

Legislation moving through several Democrat-controlled state legislatures would restrict or ban federal immigration agents from operating near polling locations, with supporters pointing to concerns about federal overreach in elections. Existing federal law already caps armed personnel at voting sites, and the Department of Homeland Security has said deploying ICE to the polls is not part of any plan, according to Stateline.

When lawmakers on Capitol Hill pressed ICE and Border Patrol commanders on the question, they replied “No, sir,” and DHS election integrity official Heather Honey told Congress, “it is simply not true” that agents would be present at the polls.

Kaczmarek put her position on record in a video ahead of the March 17 primary, saying, “In DuPage County, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will not be allowed to interfere with DuPage County elections in any way.”

Her office followed with a press release carrying the message “ICE, go away. Do not even try. You will fail,” with Kaczmarek calling the idea of non-citizens voting on Election Day “a myth.”

Her office also launched a hotline for residents to report ICE activity and highlighted that DuPage voters can cast ballots at any of 248 countywide locations through the “Vote Anywhere” program.

Hois questions Kaczmarek’s claim that non-citizen voting is a myth. She said. “I do not trust her.”

Hois suspects the clerk’s office has engaged in conduct with outside vendors that may have led to predetermined election outcomes.

“Kaczmarek’s office has, for years, operated with far-left partisan bias,” she said. “It’s unlawful to hide information from the public by expressly agreeing to allow outside companies and service providers, including Dominion and Runbeck in Arizona to ‘refuse to disclose certain information to the public.'”

Hois said the legal and financial record of Kaczmarek’s office speaks for itself.

“DuPage State’s Attorney Bob Berlin has had to sue Kaczmarek for her failure to perform her job in numerous ways including not paying bills and not responding to County Board inquiries,” she said. “The Illinois State Attorney General’s Office launched a criminal investigation against Kaczmarek for her refusal to follow required bidding procedures when securing outside vendors.”

In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson advanced a plan to designate “Democracy Zones” prohibiting immigration enforcement within 100 feet of polling locations. 15th Ward Ald. Ray Lopez said the push was one that “seeks an answer to a problem that doesn’t exist” and flagged potential First Amendment issues. 

“As much as the extreme Democratic Left and Socialists decried President Trump’s election loss conspiracies, they have proven no better,” Lopez told Chicago City Wire. “Actually, the Democratic logic is worse as it appears to build on the allegations of non-citizens participating in our American electoral process and needing protection from deportation.”

On social media, Libs of TikTok questioned the matter on X, saying, “If illegals are not voting, then why would anyone care if ICE is near a polling place?”

Hois said she has witnessed firsthand how local elected officials are actively working against federal immigration enforcement, citing a Downers Grove ordinance adopted on February 3, and a March 12 town hall meeting at the Woodridge Public Library.

“Anne Stava made statements against ICE and in favor of restricting the Trump administration’s deportation efforts in her Town Hall Meeting held at Woodridge Public Library, March 12, 2026,” she said. “She cited Illinois law that conflicts with federal law. In 2019, Stava voted ‘YES’ to restricting immigration enforcement (HB 1637 – Keep Families Together Act); and amended immigration deportation regulations enhancing ‘civil rights’ for illegals (HB 1610).”

Hois said the pattern of state policy blocking federal enforcement is no accident.

“Illinois’ rules restricting federal immigration enforcement are politically motivated,” she said.

Hois said using taxpayer-funded resources to broadcast sanctuary messaging through the clerk’s office crosses a clear line.

“County clerks are supposed to administer neutral, secure elections,” she said. “Using taxpayer-funded resources (hotline, videos, website promotion) to broadcast sanctuary-style messaging signals to non-citizen communities that the election system will shield them. This is unacceptable. It erodes public confidence in voter eligibility verification and turns the clerk’s office into a partisan actor rather than an impartial referee.”

Hois rebutted the argument that federal election statutes prohibit ICE from operating near polls.

“Federal law restricting interference in elections prevents disrupting the work of election officials but does not allow a state to diminish citizen’s constitutional right to vote,” she said. “Section 245(b)(1)(A), Title 18, U.S. Code imposes penalties on whoever, by force or threat … intimidates or interferes with … any class of persons from voting. ‘Persons’ is obviously not intended to include illegal aliens.”

Hois believes the warnings from Kaczmarek’s office are part of a broader pattern of allegedly ‘lawful’ cheating that relates back to changes in Illinois law made to address public health concerns (COVID). Specifically, ten ILCS 5/2B overrode conflicting sections of the election code by allowing expanded vote-by-mail, curb side voting, drop boxes, counting ballots after Election Day, and eliminating customary signature verification.  

“Kaczmarek’s warnings are politically motivated and intended to energize the partisan Democrat voter base,” she said. “DuPage County Clerk’s office has been cheating in elections. They make every effort to hide information from the public (see the Dominion and Runbeck contracts wherein the DuPage County Board expressly agrees with the service provider to avoid responding to FOIA requests).”

In DuPage County, former GOP committeeman Terry Newsome nearly lost his chance to vote when all five members of his household were entered into the voter database under the name “Updatesome” instead of Newsome.

Hois said she is not surprised to hear about the Newsome family error, pointing to similar reports from her own 2020 campaign. 

“The change to the Newsome family’s last name was a red flag,” she said. “When I ran for Illinois State Representative D-81 in 2020, I had many people contact me to report election issues, specifically, when they (registered voters) went to the Village of Downers Grove polling location to vote early, they were told they had already voted. They were forced to step aside, wait an hour, then vote provisionally until they could ‘prove’ their registration status. In each of these cases, the citizens’ votes had been stolen before they’d arrived to vote in person.”

Hois said public confidence in elections has collapsed for reasons that are justified.

“Public confidence in election integrity is at an all-time low, for good reason,” she said. “The DuPage County Clerk’s office has, on many occasions, refused to respond appropriately to FOIA requests.”

Hois said the signature verification process was effectively rendered meaningless under the temporary law in 2020. Democrat lawmakers are now attempting to pass HB3355 to make those temporary changes permanent. The bill has stalled three times in the past three weeks thanks to overwhelming opposition by people filing witness slips.  

“The requirement that all three election judges on a panel must unanimously reject a signature effectively rendered the signature verification process ineffective when the temporary law applied during the 2020 presidential election period,” she said. If two Republican election judges objected the one Democrat election judge would overrule them. The customary appeal process had been eliminated.”

Hois said Republican election judges who worked inside the clerk’s office in 2020 told her directly what they had experienced.

“In 2020, I interviewed two Republican election judges who worked in DuPage County Clerk’s office for six weeks leading up to the November 3, 2020 general election who said ‘too often, the voter’s signature on the envelope did not look at all like the signature on file, but it was approved anyway,'” she said. “Their objections were ignored and overruled by the Democrat election judge who approved the signature anyway, virtually every time.”

Hois said the structure of the verification panel made meaningful oversight impossible.

“The supervisor told them that only one verification judge (the Democrat) could approve the signature and overrule the other two,” she said. “They said, ‘when we objected to the signature because it did not look anything like the signature of record, the other judge on the panel went ahead and approved it. It was a farce.'”

“Hois said the Republican Judges asked the Deputy Clerk, ‘Why are we even doing this? What good is it to be called in to verify signatures if we cannot meaningfully object to a signature that does not match?'” she said. “The Deputy Clerk allowed the signatures to go through and at a recent public hearing on January 15, he said he did this to comply with Illinois law.”

Kaczmarek’s office drew fire from conservative critics well beyond the ICE controversy. Former state representative Jeanne Ives called her “completely incompetent,” while election integrity advocate Carol Davis said Kaczmarek is “throwing red meat to the Democrat base because she is in jeopardy of losing her seat as county clerk.”

The DuPage County Board voted in 2025 to censure her office over financial mismanagement that included late vendor payments, a budget shortfall, and staff salaries that grew 40% over five years. 

The Illinois Attorney General’s Office opened a criminal investigation into allegations of roughly $229,000 in no-bid contracts and misuse of election-related funds.

Kaczmarek was voted out in the March 17 Democratic primary, with Paula Deacon Garcia defeating her 54,761 to 42,670 in unofficial returns with all precincts reporting. Garcia advances to face Republican Patricia Kladis-Schiappa, who ran unopposed in the GOP primary, in the November general election.

Hois, a Republican, is challenging four-term incumbent State Rep. Anne Stava (D-Naperville) for the Illinois House of Representatives in District 81. Hois has a background as an attorney, business owner, Downers Grove town clerk (2013–2017), and local Republican committeeman, with involvement in multiple Illinois civic and faith-based organizations.

The 81st House District is located in the Chicago area and spans parts of DuPage, including portions of Downers Grove, Lisle, Naperville, Woodridge, Darien, and Westmont.