DHS Agents Hunt Noncitizen Voters as Democrats Sue Over Election Crackdown

Homeland Security agents have been going door to door in several states asking residents about their immigration status and whether they have registered or voted, a CBS News investigation found.

The visits are part of the Trump administration’s push to root out noncitizen voters before the Nov. 3 midterms, and they have drawn sharp pushback from Democrats, who filed a federal lawsuit this week.

According to CBS, the home visits ramped up in September and continued through last weekend. The work is being carried out by Homeland Security Investigations, an enforcement arm of ICE that typically handles cross-border crimes.

Internal documents reviewed by CBS describe a “Criminal Voter Fraud” initiative with “field reviews” in at least six states: California, Georgia, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin. Hundreds of agents were reassigned to the effort, the outlet reported.

DHS has alleged that as many as 250,000 noncitizens could be illegally registered to vote, a figure election experts dispute. The Justice Department says 156 people have been charged with voting-fraud related offenses since the administration began.

The Justice Department announced Monday that Homeland Security agents in California had arrested more than 20 green card holders on allegations that they illegally registered or voted, CBS reported.

A DHS spokesperson defended the operation, saying the agency is “laser focused on prosecuting and removing aliens who vote and preventing the dilution of the votes of U.S. citizens” and that people here legally “have nothing to fear.”

The department also rejected claims that its data-matching work is rushed. “There is no quota on criminality,” a spokesperson told CBS. “DHS will pursue each and every illegal voter to the fullest extent of the law.”

Democrats Push Back in Court and Congress

Critics argue the visits could scare lawful voters away from the polls. Protect Democracy, a left-leaning group suing DHS over the door-knocking, said the effort seems designed to intimidate, according to CBS.

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, wrote to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Wednesday demanding an immediate halt, calling the operations “voter intimidation.”

Separately, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the party’s campaign committees sued the administration in federal court in Washington, the Associated Press reported.

The suit asks a judge to bar the administration from purging legally registered voters from state rolls or denying them ballots, and to declare that it illegally threatened state election officials with prosecution.

The lawsuit points to the Justice Department’s recent case against California, where federal lawyers asked a court to stop the state from counting about 20,000 mail ballots cast by people the government identified as likely noncitizens.

The Justice Department told the AP that election integrity is a top priority and that its actions are grounded in law. The case was assigned to Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg.

The fight may widen. A Justice Department official told NBC News the department is weighing litigation against more states, either before or after Election Day, to force them to scrub voter rolls of noncitizens.

Content created by Conservative Daily News and some content syndicated through CDN is available for re-publication without charge under the Creative Commons license. Visit our syndication page for details and requirements.