Hearings in Washington and California presage a chaotic sprint to the midterms. A federal appeals court panel signaled Thursday that it is unlikely to let the Department of Homeland Security resume a crackdown on alleged illegal voting — a campaign civic groups say is a thinly veiled strategy to intimidate naturalized citizens.

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals questioned the Trump administration’s emergency demand to resume its enforcement surge,known as the Unlawful Voter Initiative. A federal judge in California blocked the initiative last week.

DHS agents in nine states have conducted street-level operations targeting people who they say have either voted or registered to vote illegally. Officials have paired those operations with a made-for-social-media PR campaign featuring armed, masked agents pulling people out of their homes and placing them in handcuffs.

“Isn't part of this that the … surge has an aspect of it that seemingly actually wants to intentionally — is making an effort to instill fear?”Judge Kim Wardlaw, a Clinton appointee, said during Thursday’s hearing.