Hundreds of federal agents have been diverted from their usual duties to search voter registration records across the United States for non-citizens, despite longstanding evidence that unlawful voting is extremely rare.
The operation, known internally as the Unlawful Voter Initiative, is being run by the Department of Homeland Security ahead of November’s midterm elections. Agents are examining state voter rolls and matching personal details, including dates of birth and partial Social Security numbers, against immigration and citizenship records.
Documents and training videos reviewed by The New York Times show that investigators have also been instructed to use public voter-registration websites operated by state election officials. In practice, agents are entering the names and identifying information of individual voters to check their registration status and voting history.
The methods have raised concerns because several of the websites appear to be intended for voters checking their own details. Florida’s portal, for example, says it is for use by a registered voter to establish their registration and voting status. Virginia users must certify that the information belongs to them or that they have the voter’s express permission.
It is unclear whether federal agents are entering a legally prohibited area. Rules governing access to voter information vary between states, while privacy protections and restrictions on the use of election data are not uniform.
Federal voter fraud investigation expands
The operation involves investigators from the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate at US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Training material says agents must first compare voter information with Department of Homeland Security databases, then examine citizenship records and dates of naturalisation before deciding whether a case should be referred for further action.
More than 1,000 cases have so far been referred to Homeland Security Investigations, according to a DHS official. HSI officers are conducting interviews in the field, with the cases involving people suspected of registering or voting while not eligible, as well as naturalised citizens who may have registered before they were entitled to do so.
A separate HSI initiative described as a “Criminal Voter Fraud surge initiative” began on September 1 and is due to run through mid-October in nine states, including Washington, Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia, Nevada and New York. The guidance describes the work as pursuing investigative leads, conducting field interviews and supporting rapid prosecutorial review. ([transcripts.cnn.com](https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/sitroom/date/2026-09-01/segment/04))
The inquiry draws on a database containing information on hundreds of thousands of voters. The documents do not identify the body that assembled it or explain all the criteria used, but early checks found that some US citizens had been included, according to a person familiar with the operation.
Officials have warned agents to take particular care before making referrals. Training material says investigators have previously mistaken people for non-citizens after finding them listed as such in government records, without checking whether they had subsequently become naturalised citizens.
“The purpose of this process is to refer unlawful voters and unlawful registered voters to H.S.I.,” Paul Gleason, a DHS official, told trainees. “We’re not referring confirmed U.S. citizens.”
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has made alleged non-citizen voting a central concern of the department. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that large numbers of non-citizens are registered to vote or have cast ballots, although his administration has not substantiated those claims.
The administration’s figures have already been challenged by state election officials. In Nevada, DHS initially said it had identified nearly 16,000 non-citizens on the voter roll, but later supplied the state with a list of only 185 identification numbers linked to people it considered confident matches. Officials said thousands of other names still required further review. ([kpbs.org](https://www.kpbs.org/news/politics/2026/08/25/dhs-acknowledges-the-noncitizen-numbers-it-touted-on-voter-rolls-were-inflated))
Pennsylvania’s Republican secretary of the commonwealth, Al Schmidt, said DHS officials had acknowledged that they did not have high confidence that the 14,576 people cited in an earlier federal communication were improperly registered non-citizens. The state is awaiting information about the department’s methodology. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/3c24d72b0b91803ed097226ee00f9483))
The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel concluded in a May memorandum that federal law allowed the department to compel states to provide statewide voter-registration lists and share them with DHS for cross-checking against government databases. The opinion said possible matches could be used to remove names from voter rolls, refer people for prosecution, or both. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/olc/media/1440346/dl))
That legal advice has not settled the political and privacy objections. California officials said they were monitoring the federal operation and would defend confidential voter information against attempts to bypass protections established under state law.
Nina Sheridan, a spokeswoman for the California attorney general, said the office was “working vigorously to protect confidential voter data” and was prepared to guard against efforts by the federal government to circumvent existing safeguards.
Amanda Baran, a former senior citizenship and immigration official in the Biden administration, described the operation as “a nakedly political fishing expedition using questionable methods to intimidate people from exercising their right to vote”.
DHS said the department was committed to ensuring that only US citizens voted in American elections and that election integrity remained a priority for Mr Trump and Mr Mullin.
Evidence gathered over many years indicates that non-citizen voting is uncommon. A database maintained by the conservative Heritage Foundation records about 100 cases over roughly 25 years, while an incident in New Jersey involved about 400 non-citizens voting after a software error led to their improper registration.
Despite the limited evidence, Mr Trump has used the issue to support tighter voting rules, including a proposed requirement for documentary proof of citizenship when registering. A federal judge permanently blocked much of an earlier executive order seeking to impose that requirement, ruling in June that the Constitution gives states and Congress, rather than the president, authority over election rules. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/358912bcb6c7223b3d2d36465156fde9))
Voting-rights organisations and Democratic officials fear that the continued emphasis on alleged fraud could undermine confidence in the electoral system and encourage challenges to results. Former DHS officials have also expressed concern that investigators are being pulled away from work involving national security, human trafficking and immigration enforcement for a politically charged search for evidence.
