Federal Judge Orders DHS to Halt Election-Related Noncitizen Voting Operations in Nine States

A federal judge in California has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to halt election-related field operations aimed at suspected noncitizen voters in nine states until polls close on Election Day, Nov. 3.

In recent weeks, armed Homeland Security Investigations officers have visited homes to interview people suspected of voting illegally as noncitizens, NPR reported. The targets can include people who became citizens but voted before they were naturalized.

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of the Northern District of California, an appointee of President Joe Biden who sits in Oakland, issued the 19-page order late Wednesday, Oct. 21. She put the ruling on hold until 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, to give the administration time to appeal, according to CBS News and The Associated Press.

What the order covers

The ruling applies to operations in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.

According to NPR, the order bars DHS from conducting “elections-related field operations and field interviews” that target people officials “know, suspect, or should reasonably know or suspect are U.S. citizens,” or that rely wholly on citizenship-matching data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services without further investigation.

The judge noted the limits of the case. “Plaintiffs do not claim, nor does the Court find, that it is unlawful for federal officials to undertake investigations into unlawful voting in federal elections,” the judge wrote, according to CBS News. “Rather, Plaintiffs seek to stop DHS from continuing to investigate U.S. citizens, who have a legal right to vote, in a way that intimidates and threatens the participation of CNA/NNU members from urging or aiding others to vote.”

Who sued, and why

The lawsuit was filed by the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United, along with the Voto Latino Foundation, the City and County of San Francisco and Santa Clara County, the AP reported.

The judge found the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on a claim that the operations violated the part of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits intimidating people who help others vote. The AP reported that she based the decision on the unions’ argument that the probe was harming voter assistance and mobilization work, and that she did not find union members’ own right to vote had been infringed.

In her ruling, Martínez-Olguín described the lists of voters given to investigators as “voluminous and unreliable.” She wrote, according to the AP: “Even under the best conditions, there is a high likelihood of error in review because there is no federal database containing citizenship status of U.S. residents.”

The AP reported that during a “surge” phase that began in late August, agents were directed to take no more than 12 minutes per person to review whether flagged individuals were legally qualified to vote. Details of the effort, which the AP said was known as the “Unlawful Voter Initiative,” became public last month after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., released a whistleblower report.

How the government responded

In an emailed statement Thursday, DHS said it is focused on “removing aliens who vote and dilute the votes of U.S. citizens,” and added: “We have no plans to question or investigate people we believe to be U.S. citizens,” according to the AP.

CBS News, citing the Justice Department, reported that 156 people have been charged with voting-fraud related offenses since the beginning of the Trump administration.

Beau Tremitiere, a lawyer representing the unions and the voter group, said in a statement quoted by the AP: “It was clear from the start that DHS built its lists on bad data, never checked how often it was wrong, and recklessly sent agents to people’s homes weeks before an election.”

What comes next

Unless an appeals court intervenes, the restrictions take effect after the temporary hold expires Friday evening and remain in place through the close of polls on Nov. 3.

Separately, the AP noted, the Justice Department has sued the 30 states that refused to hand over unredacted voter roll data and has lost each of those cases so far.