People vote at a polling place at Metro Los Angeles headquarters during the California state primary, June 2, 2026.
Frédéric J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
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Frédéric J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
A federal judge in California is imposing limits on pre-election field operations conducted by the Department of Homeland Security that the agency says are aimed at trying to track down noncitizens who voted illegally in nine states.
In recent weeks, armed agents from Homeland Security Investigations have conducted field operations and visited homes to interview people suspected of voting illegally as noncitizens. Targets may include people who became citizens but voted before becoming naturalized.
In a 19-page order Wednesday evening, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, appointed by President Joe Biden, wrote that the federal government was using “flawed” data in the initiative and that its efforts likely violated the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voter intimidation.
Martínez-Olguín referenced a disclosure last month from a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services whistleblower that alleged rushed efforts to compare data to create a target list of potential noncitizens on the voter rolls, and that that list included U.S. citizens. She also pointed to HSI’s social media posts, including one showing agents handcuffing a Californian accused of illegally registering to vote.
The judge wrote that the government’s use of unreliable and incomplete data as well as high-profile arrests “lead to an objectively reasonable fear of trouble with law enforcement who intimidate citizens and prevent them from inciting or assisting others in exercising their right to vote.”
HSI field operations were planned in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin, according to documents produced in the case and CNN reporting.
Martínez-Olguín prohibited DHS agents in those states from conducting field operations targeting individuals who they “know, suspect, or reasonably should know or suspect are U.S. citizens,” or who are based “entirely” on USCIS match data, without further investigation.
In a statement, USCIS official Nicolas Bartell told the judge that his team manually reviews cases before sending them back to HSI, but acknowledged the “remote possibility” that citizens could be “misidentified as potential aliens” in federal records. He wrote that the risks were mitigated by the protective measures his office took “and that the remaining risks were outweighed by the need to support the agency’s mission of law enforcement and election integrity.”
It’s unclear what effect the judge’s order will have on the federal government’s high-profile campaign to find non-citizen voters.
State reviews and audits have consistently found that non-citizen voting is extremely rare.
“DHS is focused on identifying, prosecuting, and deporting aliens who vote and dilute the votes of U.S. citizens. ONLY Americans should elect America’s leaders,” the agency wrote in a statement. “We do not intend to question or investigate anyone we believe to be U.S. citizens.”
The order is set to take effect Friday and would remain in effect until election night, although the federal government could appeal.
The judge’s decision is part of a lawsuit filed last month by a coalition that includes San Francisco and Santa Clara counties, the city of San Francisco, nurses unions and the Voto Latino Foundation. Protect Democracy and the National Immigration Law Center are filing a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.
“Today, the courts affirmed a vital principle of our democracy: Voting is a fundamental right that citizens – whether born here or naturalized – should be able to exercise without armed government agents harassing them,” Beau Tremitiere, an attorney at Protect Democracy, said in a statement.
“It was clear from the start that DHS built its lists on bad data, never checked the frequency of errors, and recklessly sent agents to people’s homes weeks before an election,” he added.
A court filing by the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United describes naturalized citizens who no longer wanted to attend political rallies, register as poll workers or vote in person because of federal operations.
The order comes as the Justice Department sues California and demands that the state separate 20,000 ballots from people federal officials believe are “likely” noncitizens.
A preliminary review of a sample of that list by Los Angeles County election officials found that many registrations were canceled, inactive or had no voting history, and some were for people who indicated they were born in the United States.
The DOJ announced charges Monday against 28 green card holders across the state, accused of voting illegally or registering to vote.
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