- Homeland Security identifies 250,000 potential noncitizens on voter rolls across California, New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.
- The administration links voter registration to strict immigration enforcement including deportation and denaturalization risks.
- State officials and courts challenge the accuracy and legality of the federal SAVE program data.
Homeland Security has intensified a nationwide campaign to identify noncitizens in voter rolls, reopening old investigations, pressing states to share registration data and threatening immigration consequences for some people flagged by federal systems.
The campaign centers on four states. On July 17, the department said a review of public records found more than 250,000 potential noncitizens registered to vote in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced the figures in letters to the four states’ secretaries of state. He wrote:
"Election security is national security. Only Americans should be electing American leaders. DHS has identified over 250,000 potential non-citizens illegally registered to vote in just 4 U.S. states."
State officials have challenged the figures and the methods behind them. Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said August 9 that federal officials had not provided the names or methodology supporting the claim that 14,576 people in his state were improperly registered.
The figures have also drawn scrutiny because audits, academic studies and past prosecutions have found that voting by noncitizens is rare. Registration errors account for some cases.
President Donald J. Trump ordered the effort in a July 16 primetime address, saying, "I have ordered DHS to notify every state about noncitizens on their voter rolls and direct them to remove all ineligible voters from the lists immediately."
The administration has paired the data review with immigration enforcement. Customs officers have been moved to border checkpoints to detain immigrants suspected of appearing on registration lists, while agents have joined election investigations in major cities.
Some green card holders seeking citizenship have entered deportation proceedings after registering, even when they never cast a ballot. A directive issued April 22 says people found to have registered or voted could face criminal charges, denaturalization or immediate deportation.
Four states account for the administration’s largest claimed total
The July 17 review produced these preliminary figures:
| State | People identified by the review |
|---|---|
| California | 190,832 |
| New Jersey | 35,152 |
| Nevada | 15,903 |
| Pennsylvania | 14,576 |
The department also claimed that 23 other states cooperating with federal officials contained an additional 28,000 people who were not eligible to register. The figures describe potential cases, not proven illegal voting.
New Jersey officials identified a specific source of error. A software problem in the motor vehicle registration system added 6,600 noncitizens to state records between June 2023 and June 2024.
Officials said they found no evidence that the mistaken registrations changed an election outcome. The episode has become a central example in the dispute over whether federal data can distinguish an administrative mistake from intentional fraud.
David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation & Research said commercial databases and outdated immigration records can produce false positives. Naturalized citizens may be flagged because an earlier record, such as a driver’s license, listed them as noncitizens.
SAVE has become the federal government’s main screening tool
The administration has pushed states to upload tens of millions of registration records into the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, known as SAVE. The database received an overhaul in April 2026 that added real-time Social Security and passport data for broader citizenship checks.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said officials had checked 47.5 million voter records through the expanded system. The administration says the search can help identify people who are not eligible to register.
In February 2026, Homeland Security Investigations issued a two-page memo directing employees to review all open and closed voter-fraud cases involving immigrants who registered before becoming naturalized citizens. The department also reopened previously closed cases and directed agents toward registration investigations.
A June 2026 memo from DHS General Counsel James Percival told Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorneys to seek stricter penalties. Percival wrote:
"Now, thanks to this directive, ICE attorneys have greater authority to enforce the law and stop the abuse of our asylum system by illegal aliens and attorneys."
Executive Order 14399, issued March 31, 2026, ordered the department, the Social Security Administration and the Postal Service to coordinate citizenship data with state election officials. It also instructed the Justice Department to prioritize prosecutions involving people accused of voting improperly.
The House passed the SAVE America Act in February 2026. The bill would require states to send their registration lists to the federal database.
Federal threats have widened the fight with states
The Justice Department has sued dozens of states for access to registration records and instructed prosecutors to pursue more charges against people accused of illegal voting. The administration has also warned state election officials of criminal penalties and possible prison time if they refuse to use federal data to scrub their lists.
Officials have threatened states with criminal penalties and the loss of some disaster-relief funding if they do not cooperate with SAVE or provide registration information. Mullin has invoked obligations under the Help America Vote Act while demanding compliance.
The legal campaign has met resistance. Federal judges have rejected multiple administration attempts to force states to provide unredacted registration records, and one ruling said states do not have to share those records with the federal government.
On June 22, a D.C. federal district court issued an injunction in League of Women Voters v. U.S. Dep't of Homeland Security. The order barred immediate purges based on what the court described as “incomplete and unverifiable voter roll analysis” from SAVE.
The ruling came as states approached the federal election calendar’s protected period. The National Voter Registration Act prohibits systematic removals within 90 days of a federal election.
Senators challenge the timing as states reject the numbers
Democratic senators led by Alex Padilla of California called August 6 for a halt to Executive Order 14399. They argued that the administration’s planned removals conflict with the National Voter Registration Act’s quiet period.
Schmidt’s criticism added a state-level challenge. Pennsylvania’s secretary said the government had withheld the underlying list and the method used to produce the 14,576 figure.
New Jersey’s software error provided another test. The state’s explanation covered 6,600 records, while the federal review identified 35,152 potential cases there.
The administration has not treated the review as a routine database correction. It has connected registration records to criminal enforcement, deportation proceedings and citizenship applications.
The Justice Department’s lawsuits and the SAVE America Act are designed to expand federal access to state records. The June injunction and other rulings have limited how quickly officials can use those records to remove people.
The dispute is now moving toward the 90-day federal election restriction. State officials face federal demands for data, while courts continue to review whether the department can compel disclosure and purge records using the expanded system.
