By The Trump administration has assembled a nationwide operation inside Immigration and Customs Enforcement to investigate noncitizen voter registration, examining tens of millions of records and pursuing organizations suspected of facilitating illegal voting. Newly released documents show how the administration is putting federal investigators behind its election-security agenda as the November midterms approach.
The 166 pages of internal records, released Wednesday by the advocacy group Democracy Forward, describe an operation involving voter-roll analysis, field investigations and regular reports to senior officials. Homeland Security Investigations, ICE’s investigative arm, organized the effort into phases covering data collection, investigative leads and potential enforcement actions.
A June 1 report said investigators had processed 50.6 million records supplied by the Justice Department and another 48.4 million obtained by Heather Honey, a senior counselor to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, through “independent sources of information.” The document did not identify those sources, and the figures do not establish how many unique voters were examined.
DHS defended the work as an effort to protect Americans’ votes. A department spokesperson said: “DHS has been incredibly transparent about the acquisition and the analysis of publicly available voter files conducted by the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate of USCIS. DHS and DOJ are laser focused on prosecuting and removing aliens who vote and preventing the dilution of the votes of US citizens.”
The investigation comes amid documented failures in state registration systems. As New Conservative Post previously reported, New Jersey acknowledged in July that a software error had registered approximately 6,600 noncitizens, with fewer than 400 subsequently casting ballots. Applicants had correctly disclosed that they were not citizens, according to state officials, but the motor vehicle system registered them anyway.
That admission gave supporters of stronger verification requirements a concrete example of safeguards failing before ballots were cast. It did not, however, establish the administration’s broader claim that roughly 250,000 noncitizens were registered across New Jersey, California, Pennsylvania and Nevada—a figure officials in those states have repeatedly disputed.
The newly disclosed records show investigators looking beyond individual registrations to determine whether organizations helped facilitate violations. One internal comparison described a “network-based investigative approach, prioritizing organization and facilitation analysis over individual leads.” Reviews covered dozens of nonprofits and voter-registration groups, including organizations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Several inquiries produced no evidence of wrongdoing. Investigators found no derogatory information on dozens of New Jersey organizations, reported no suspicious financial activity in another nonprofit review and closed a separate Ohio inquiry after exhausting available leads. Those findings limit what can be concluded from the number of groups examined.
Other investigations continued. By late May, HSI and the FBI were developing plans involving seven Ohio companies associated with Black Fork Strategies, a progressive canvassing firm that investigators alleged had connections to several noncitizens registered in Cuyahoga County. A June 8 notice described plans to execute federal search warrants and interview more than 100 current and former employees in an investigation of fraudulent registration and illegal voting.
Federal agents raided the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a progressive organization with extensive ties to Black Fork, three days later. The heavily redacted documents do not explicitly identify Black Fork as the planned warrant target, and the investigative allegations do not establish that either organization committed a crime.
Officials also considered undercover operations involving organizations suspected of recruiting noncitizens to register. A June report identified New Jersey and Pennsylvania as priorities and described gathering evidence and tracing financial support if investigators determined such recruitment was occurring.
The enforcement push has unfolded alongside a separate courtroom fight over citizenship checks. Last month, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to allow the administration to resume using an expanded federal citizenship database while litigation continues. The order suspended restrictions imposed by a Biden-appointed judge, giving states renewed access to a tool Republicans have sought for checking voter eligibility. Challengers argue that outdated information can wrongly flag naturalized Americans as noncitizens.
The ICE records also describe immigration enforcement as a separate option when investigators cannot build a criminal case. Internal guidance explained that certain immigration consequences do not require a criminal conviction and, in some circumstances, do not require proof that someone knew the vote was unlawful.
“There is no requirement that the alien have knowledge that he or she has illegally voted, and no conviction is required,” the guidance stated. In a July email, ICE Deputy Director Charles Wall underscored the agency’s involvement: “HSI is heavily working these cases,” he wrote.
Democracy Forward portrayed the operation as political interference. “It appears the president and his allies want to pick their voters, as opposed to the way things are supposed to function in a democracy where voters pick their leaders,” President and CEO Skye Perryman said.
The administration maintains that checking eligibility protects citizens from having their votes diluted. By late May, HSI had opened 418 voter-fraud cases, made 64 administrative arrests and distributed more than 1,500 investigative leads to field offices. Of those cases, 318 had not been referred for prosecution—figures that demonstrate the investigation’s reach but should not be mistaken for a tally of proven illegal votes.
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