Democrats erupt as DHS launches voter fraud crackdown across nine states

Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, began the initiative Tuesday in Washington, Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York and Connecticut.

Internal federal guidance obtained by CNN describes the operation as a “coordinated criminal voter fraud surge initiative” running from early September through mid-October. The effort focuses partly on identifying noncitizens who may have illegally registered or cast ballots, including immigrants who allegedly voted before becoming American citizens. Investigators have also been directed to coordinate with US Citizenship and Immigration Services, meaning illegal voting could lead to criminal charges, denial of citizenship or deportation.

“While ICE Homeland Security Investigations is not able to comment on any active investigations, HSI is actively rooting out and investigating election fraud wherever it can be found,” a DHS spokesperson said. “Our message to aliens who vote in American elections is clear: we will find you, arrest you, and you will face the consequences—including criminal charges and deportation.”

The investigations are part of a broader Trump administration election-integrity initiative centered on DHS’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, program. The system allows states to compare voter information with federal citizenship and immigration records.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced in July that states seeking DHS election-related grants would be required to adopt security measures that include reviewing voter rolls through SAVE. “Working with Secretary Lutnick, we are going to make our security enhancements mandatory,” Mullin said. “The machines have to be secured, and your voter registration list needs to be scrubbed. We need to make sure that individuals that are legally able to vote are voting.”

Mullin said at the time that DHS had identified more than 250,000 potential noncitizens registered to vote across California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada. DHS has more broadly reported identifying over 24,000 potential noncitizens on voter rolls since April 2025.

Recent federal investigations have already produced criminal cases. ICE arrested a Honduran illegal alien accused of voting in seven federal elections since 2008. A Mexican national pleaded guilty to voter fraud after falsely claiming to be an American citizen. DHS also announced the arrest of an Australian national accused of voting in multiple federal elections, the prosecution of a Chinese national on voter fraud charges, and the sentencing of an illegal alien who used a stolen identity to vote in elections for more than 20 years.

Despite those documented cases, Democratic officials in several targeted states denounced the operation before DHS publicly disclosed whom agents were investigating.

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said he learned about the operation through the media and complained that DHS had not contacted his office. “It’s troubling that Homeland Security is wasting taxpayer dollars investigating a phenomenon we know to be false.”

“This is another attempt by the federal government to cause chaos and confusion ahead of the midterms,” he added.

Hobbs claimed Washington recorded only five voter fraud cases among 90 million ballots cast between 2008 and 2025. In a separate statement earlier this year, however, his office acknowledged 15 cases of noncitizen voting in Washington between 1982 and 2025.

Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was even more combative. “It’s a joke,” Evers said. “I think it’s another thing that Trump is doing to make it look like there’s all sorts of problems that are not problems in Wisconsin. And frankly, he needs to stay out of it because voting is a state issue and not a federal issue.”

Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden countered that Democratic-controlled states should release their voter rolls. “One of the best things to do would be for all of these Democrat-controlled states to release their voter rolls, so we can actually look,” Van Orden said. “Trust, but verify.”

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s office claimed the DHS operation was part of “a broader effort to intimidate Californians and make it burdensome to participate in our democracy.”

The office dismissed DHS’s allegations as “seemingly baseless” and attacked the administration’s “so-called prosecution ‘surges.’”

“California already has a system of checks designed to verify the identity of voters,” Weber’s office said. “These requirements fully comply with federal law. Full stop.”

Connecticut Democratic Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas said voters in her state were already “afraid” and suggested the operation could be intended to create chaos. “I welcome any investigation into election malfeasance,” Thomas said. “I would just hope that the intent is, as it’s been reported, to find malfeasance and not to create chaos.”

The response was different in Georgia, where Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office received a DHS subpoena seeking records for 13 voters and said it would comply. “It’s an immigration investigation by them,” said Gabe Sterling, a senior official in Raffensperger’s office. “So this could be for people they think might have potentially voted or for people who are applying for citizenship, because if they have voted, then they don’t get it.”