Federal Judge Restricts DHS Voter Fraud Investigations in Nine States

A federal judge in California on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, restricted the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to investigate suspected noncitizen voters in nine states, citing unreliable citizenship data that could expose eligible voters to scrutiny. The order limits field interviews ahead of the November midterm elections and aims to prevent investigations from discouraging lawful participation.

Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín's ruling covers California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin. According to CNN and The New York Times, the order bars agents from conducting interviews involving people they know, suspect, or reasonably should suspect are U.S. citizens. It does not completely halt the department's field operations and was scheduled to take effect Friday afternoon, allowing the Trump administration time to appeal.

The judge cited concerns that federal records used to identify potential noncitizen voters contain errors, including records identifying naturalized citizens as potential targets. The litigation was brought by voting rights organizations and advocacy groups, which argued that the investigations could intimidate eligible voters and interfere with election participation.

Martínez-Olguín wrote that the federal government's data was widely recognized as capable of inadvertently including U.S. citizens and could leave people afraid that they would be wrongly investigated. She also emphasized that the case concerned the use of incomplete information to compile interview lists in the months before an election.

According to CNN, the judge wrote, "The public’s interest in safe elections, free from interference or intimidation, far exceed Defendants’ purported interest in combating unlawful voting by non-U.S. citizens."

Beau Tremitiere, an attorney for Protect Democracy, which represents the organizations that filed the lawsuit, said the ruling offered protection to citizens who had become targets of the investigations.

"This order is a serious protection: the current policy targets known naturalized citizens," Tremitiere told CNN. He said the restrictions should also prevent agents from presuming that other people are appropriate targets when information indicates they are citizens.

The ruling comes amid a broader federal effort to identify suspected noncitizen voter registrations. The New York Times reported that hundreds of Homeland Security agents had been assigned to field operations, including stops and interviews, under an initiative the administration called the Unlawful Voter Initiative.

The Department of Homeland Security has defended its methods, arguing that investigators use multiple data sources to verify registrants' identities and reduce false positives. CNN said it had requested comment from the department following the ruling.

A separate dispute in California has raised additional questions about the accuracy of federal voter lists. According to NPR, the Justice Department provided officials with a list of approximately 20,000 people whom federal investigators considered likely noncitizens registered to vote in the state. The department demanded that California segregate ballots associated with those individuals while their citizenship status was investigated.

California officials challenged the request in court filings submitted Tuesday, October 20, arguing that investigating the list so close to the election would be impractical and could violate election laws. The state described the litigation as a reckless political stunt that threatened to disenfranchise thousands of Californians.

Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan reported that only 7,035 of the approximately 20,000 names had addresses in the county and that some entries were duplicates. County employees reviewed a sample of 200 records to assess the list's reliability.

Monica Flores, the county's assistant registrar-recorder, wrote that the preliminary review indicated the list was unreliable. Among records with meaningful birthplace information, 38.9% indicated that the individuals had been born in the United States, according to her court declaration. The filing did not establish how many people that percentage represented across the entire list.

The county's sample also included 112 people whose registrations were canceled or inactive, while approximately 70% of those reviewed had no voting history, NPR reported. U.S. birth generally confers citizenship, subject to limited exceptions, making the birthplace information relevant to questions about the federal list's accuracy.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter acknowledged that the federal list could contain mistakes during a Monday news conference. "There may be some names on there who it turns out ultimately are citizens, we're not perfect," McCotter said. He added that the Justice Department had asked California to cooperate in verifying the records.

In response to questions about the county's findings, Justice Department deputy press secretary Kiersten Pels said California could not facilitate violations of federal law. She said the department had asked the state to independently verify the citizenship of people on the list whose ballots were cast and argued that refusing to do so would amount to willful blindness.

NPR also reported that the Justice Department announced criminal charges against 28 people on Monday in connection with names on the California list. All 28 were legal permanent residents, commonly known as green card holders. Research cited by NPR indicates that when noncitizens vote in the relatively rare cases documented, misunderstandings of voting eligibility rules can be a factor.

The California dispute remains separate from the nine-state case before Martínez-Olguín, but both involve federal efforts to identify suspected noncitizen voters using government records. The judge's restrictions are scheduled to remain in place until after the November 2026 midterm elections unless altered by further court action.