DHS's Hunt for Noncitizen Voters Draws Two Lawsuits as Nevada List of 185 Turns Out to Be All U.S. Citizens

Since DHS launched the Unlawful Voter Initiative in late August with a September 1 enforcement surge, the program has racked up two federal lawsuits, a whistleblower complaint aired by Senate Democrats, and a confirmed data error in Nevada where every single flagged voter turned out to be a U.S. citizen.

The Nevada Error

DHS sent Nevada a list of 185 people it suspected were noncitizens who had voted illegally. The New York Times reported that state officials checked the list and found all 185 were, in fact, U.S. citizens. DHS has not disputed that finding in any public statement collected by Reason.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem told Fox News on Saturday, September 19, that DHS is "looking into" 300,000 cases nationwide, with 1,620 "under investigation" and 151 arrests so far. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter addressed the same case numbers with reporters on Tuesday, September 22.

What the Whistleblower Alleges

On September 14, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Alex Padilla released a whistleblower disclosure describing how the program actually runs inside U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' fraud detection unit. According to the disclosure and CNN's reporting on it, USCIS employees were pulled off regular immigration and national security casework and given weeks to cross-reference USCIS records against state voter rolls and other data described in a training transcript only as coming in "through supplemental magic," a phrase DHS has not explained.

The whistleblower says agents were told to flag naturalized citizens who registered to vote before they were naturalized, and were given a quota of five case reviews per hour. The disclosure alleges agents were instructed to create federal watchlist entries, known as TECS records, on individuals even when the agent "reasonably believes" the underlying data isn't reliable enough to justify it. A TECS flag can trigger extra scrutiny at the border and in future dealings with the government.

Schumer called it sending "hundreds of officers who should be focused on our security on a wild goose chase," and said DHS is "telling officers to lie to do it." A DHS spokesperson told CNN the effort is "commonplace law enforcement" and "conducted diligently and professionally," without addressing the specific allegations.

Two Lawsuits, Different Angles

The city and county of San Francisco, Santa Clara County, the California Nurses Association and the voter-turnout group Voto Latino filed suit alleging HSI agents are showing up at the homes of U.S. citizens to interrogate them about voter eligibility, and are asking a court to bar DHS from doing that or otherwise interfering with the midterms. DHS's press office told Reason it needed more time to respond and has not followed up since.

A second, separate coalition, including the NAACP, AFT, SEIU, the National Urban League, LatinoJustice PRLDEF and six other groups, filed suit on Friday, September 18, represented by the Legal Defense Fund, the Brennan Center for Justice, Protect Democracy and others. That complaint argues the administration's public statements about deploying armed agents near polling places violate Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which bars intimidation of voters. NPR reported that Denver's elections clerk, Paul López, who is part of that coalition, says voters now regularly ask him what to do if federal agents show up at their polling place.

DHS Says It Isn't Targeting Polls, With a Caveat

DHS told NPR that ICE "is not planning operations targeting polling locations," but added that agents "may be arrested as a result of" targeted enforcement if "an active public safety threat endangered a polling location." Border czar Tom Homan told Fox News agents wouldn't be "sweeping polling places," while FBI Director Kash Patel, at a Tuesday congressional hearing, wouldn't rule out FBI presence at the polls but said agents would "follow the law." President Trump said in May he would do "anything necessary" to ensure "honest" elections.

The Rarity Argument, and DHS's Counter

Critics point to a Brennan Center for Justice analysis of roughly 23.5 million votes cast in 2016 that found just 30 suspected noncitizen votes, and a 25-year audit in Georgia, a Republican-run state, that found zero. If noncitizen voting is this rare, a dragnet covering hundreds of thousands of records risks far more false flags, like Nevada's 185, than actual fraud caught.

DHS's counterargument, laid out separately in a September 20 press statement, is that its officers face real threats carrying out immigration law. The department cited a 1,649% rise in assaults on ICE personnel since January 2025 compared with the same period under the Biden administration, and has accused "sanctuary politicians" of fueling that hostility with rhetoric. That statement addresses ICE's broader safety record, not the voter initiative specifically, but reflects the administration's position that its enforcement posture, wherever it operates, is a legitimate response to rising danger.

Neither lawsuit has produced a ruling. ACLU of Indiana updated its own "Know Your Rights" guidance on September 21, telling voters that armed federal agents at polling places are illegal under federal law regardless of the outcome of either case. With early voting for the November midterms approaching, both lawsuits are asking courts to settle, before Election Day, how far DHS can go.