How Trump’s unprecedented effort to prosecute noncitizen voters fell apart

Trump Administration Directs Federal Agencies to Investigate Noncitizen Voting on State Rolls

The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice have directed personnel to examine state voter rolls for potential noncitizen registrations since early 2025. Internal records and interviews show that Homeland Security Investigations agents received assignments to review leads generated from cross-checks between voter data and federal immigration records.

In March 2026, Joe Teirab, then second-in-command at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, received an email from a Justice Department official requesting a status update on cases involving possible noncitizen voting. Teirab replied that after subpoenas covering roughly 130 individuals, one case had been referred for prosecution. He noted that HSI agents had contacted local election offices for voting histories and described coordination issues in the task force.

The administration has stated that noncitizen voting violates federal law and that accurate voter rolls are required for election integrity. A White House spokesperson said the goal is “totally accurate and up-to-date voter rolls free of errors and unlawfully registered non-citizen voters.” A DHS spokesperson described the cross-referencing of publicly available voter rolls with records of known noncitizens as a standard data-matching step.

ProPublica reviewed internal emails indicating that some career Justice Department staff raised questions about transferring voter data to HSI under federal privacy statutes. HSI personnel also noted that database searches using redacted public voter lists could produce mismatches. The administration proceeded with the reviews.

Between January 2025 and May 2026, Justice Department data reviewed by ProPublica recorded fewer than 150 referrals for prosecution of alleged noncitizen voters and 41 charges filed for illegal voting or related offenses. More than 150 million ballots were cast in the preceding presidential election.

The Heritage Foundation maintains a database that has recorded at least 99 cases of verified or suspected noncitizen voting since 2000. State election offices have also reported instances of erroneous registrations. In New Jersey, officials disclosed in 2026 that a Motor Vehicle Commission processing error placed 6,600 noncitizens on voter rolls, with fewer than 400 of those individuals casting ballots.

HSI was formed after 2001 and maintains approximately 7,100 agents plus analysts with access to multiple federal databases. In 2025, agency leadership reassigned more than 6,000 agents to immigration enforcement duties while also assigning personnel to election-related leads. Anthony Salisbury, previously head of the HSI Miami office, received a dual appointment as HSI director and deputy homeland security adviser. Agency reviews of a 2011 operation in Mexico had cited supervisory decisions involving Salisbury, though no disciplinary action followed.

Former DHS general counsel Steve Bunnell stated that directing HSI resources toward individual voting cases differs from the agency’s traditional focus on large-scale criminal organizations. Administration officials have maintained that any violation of voting laws warrants investigation regardless of scale.

Critics of the initiative, including some former agency officials, have questioned whether HSI’s tools are suited to voter-roll maintenance. Supporters have pointed to the legal requirement that only citizens may register to vote and have cited the need for systematic list maintenance across states.

The administration collected public voter rolls from multiple states as part of earlier efforts to obtain more complete data. Searches using those lists generated leads that were then assigned to field agents. In Minnesota, Teirab’s office reported that the volume of leads exceeded the number of actionable cases after initial review.

State audits and academic studies have found that most noncitizen registrations occur through administrative errors rather than intentional fraud. Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, with penalties that can include fines, imprisonment, and deportation. Prosecutions remain infrequent relative to the total number of registered voters nationwide.

The Justice Department has not released comprehensive national totals for noncitizen voting prosecutions prior to 2025. Available state-level data and the Heritage Foundation compilation provide the primary public record of documented cases over the past two decades. Administration statements have emphasized ongoing work to identify and remove ineligible registrations.

Internal correspondence reviewed by ProPublica shows that some HSI supervisors expressed concern about the volume of leads and the time required for field verification. Career staff at both DHS and DOJ documented these operational observations in emails during the first half of 2026. The administration has continued to assign resources to the reviews while stating that results will be measured by the accuracy of final voter rolls rather than by prosecution counts alone.

No comprehensive independent audit of the full HSI effort has been published as of August 2026. State election officials in several jurisdictions have reported receiving increased numbers of inquiries from federal agents regarding specific voter records. Those officials have generally cooperated with the requests while noting the administrative burden involved.

The factual record shows that federal agencies under the current administration have conducted large-scale data comparisons between voter rolls and immigration databases, generated thousands of leads, referred a smaller number for prosecution, and charged 41 individuals with election-related offenses through May 2026. Claims regarding the overall prevalence of noncitizen voting continue to be disputed, with available evidence consisting of the documented cases cited above and the much larger universe of registered voters.