Federal agents knock on doors to track down potential non-citizen voters ahead of midterm elections

Armed and uniformed, federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security have knocked on doors in several states to question residents about their immigration status — and to find out whether they registered to vote or voted in previous elections, a CBS News investigation found.

The operation is part of an effort to weed out potential non-citizen voters ahead of the midterm elections. DHS has claimed there could be as many as 250,000 citizens illegally registered to vote, although election experts have disputed the accuracy of this figure. According to the Justice Department, only 156 people have been charged with election fraud since the start of the Trump administration. There are 227 million registered voters in the United States

Critics say sending armed federal agents to the doorsteps of U.S. residents could be intimidating to legal voters.

“What we’re seeing now is the federal government interfering in the voter rolls process in an unprecedented way,” said Jessica Marsden, an attorney with Protect Democracy, a left-leaning advocacy group that is suing the federal agency over the door-to-door campaign. “And they’re doing it in a way that seems designed to maximally discourage legitimate voters from participating.”

The home visits intensified in September, in the midst of the midterm election campaign, and continued over the past weekend. The Justice Department announced Monday that Homeland Security agents in California arrested more than 20 people, all green card holders, based on allegations that they had registered or voted illegally.

As part of the raid, dozens of federal agents went to the home of a 72-year-old man from Belize, who was arrested at his home in his pajamas and arrested on charges of voting illegally in the last four elections.

“HSI actively works to root out and investigate voter fraud wherever it can be found,” a DHS spokesperson said. “Under the leadership of President Trump, HSI is committed to restoring the integrity of our election systems and ensuring that American citizens and only American citizens elect America’s leaders.”

Eric Balliet, a former Homeland Security Investigations agent, said the door-to-door operation represents a significant departure from traditional law enforcement activities.

“In my 23 years at HSI, I have never participated in or been aware of any initiative incident that sent special agents into private residences to verify voter eligibility,” said Balliet, who served in the federal government under several administrations.

In June, DHS ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to assist in the deportation of suspected non-citizen voters. Homeland Security Investigations, the agency that conducts the home visits, is one of ICE’s law enforcement arms and generally focuses on cross-border criminal investigations such as child exploitation, drug trafficking and money laundering.

Months later after the announcement, hundreds of agents were removed from their files and tasked with tracking down suspected non-citizen voters as part of a “surge” initiative, according to internal documents reviewed by CBS News. The directive, first reported by CNN, describes a “criminal voter fraud” initiative that includes “on-the-ground reviews” in at least six states, including California, Georgia, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.

Photos and videos posted to

A photo from the Kansas City HSI story shows four officers at the door of a woman standing on her porch holding the hand of a child.

The woman is identified in a Justice Department press release as Mariana Alexandra Dewey, a Peruvian national who has been charged with four counts of crimes related to election fraud, including voting illegally in the 2024 election. Her case has not yet been heard. His attorney declined to respond to CBS News’ request for comment.

For civil rights advocates, the show of force raised concerns about the chilling effect it could have on legal voters.

“It sends a signal to a much broader community: Don’t show up to the polls. Don’t vote,” said Dr. Carol Anderson, a professor of African American studies at Emory University..

“And so, if you’re someone who’s registered to vote and you’re a naturalized citizen, what you see in this community is that — because it’s not a regime that does that kind of discernment — you’re going to stay away from the voting booth.”

A DHS spokesperson said: “DHS and DOJ are focused on prosecuting and deporting aliens who vote and preventing the dilution of U.S. citizen votes…Those who are here legally and not violating other laws have nothing to fear.”

“List of targets”

In one video, officers are filmed holding a document reading “Target List.”

That list can be long, said an HSI official familiar with the initiative who asked to speak anonymously. DHS pulls internal databases, voter rolls, and other data sets. Employees then attempt to match the names with citizenship data provided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS.

In September, a USCIS whistleblower said employees were asked to review the election information of tens of thousands of people across the country, including citizens. Employees were given quotas to investigate 40 topics per day, which works out to approximately 12 minutes per topic.

DHS defended the data matching program and the work USCIS does to identify potential non-citizen voters.

“Far from being rushed or untrained, these investigative efforts are being conducted diligently and professionally,” a DHS spokesperson said. “There is no quota on crime. DHS will pursue every illegal voter to the fullest extent of the law.”

“There is every reason to expect that there will be many more false positives in these lists,” Marsden said.

She noted that Homeland Security officials initially said they had identified nearly 16,000 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter rolls, but ultimately were unable to provide proof of a single illegally registered voter.