Politics

Judge Orders DHS to Stop Search for Non‑Citizen Voters in Nine States

By Al Jazeera Staff

A United States federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to halt operations aimed at identifying non‑citizen voters in nine states ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. US District Court Judge Araceli Martinez‑Olguin ruled that the investigations likely violate a provision of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits voter intimidation. She also said the DHS may have relied on flawed data in its investigations, creating an objectively reasonable fear of law‑enforcement entanglements that intimidates citizens from exercising their right to vote. The order applies to federal efforts targeting California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin. DHS has publicised a push to identify individuals who have committed voter fraud, with some local offices posting photos of agents knocking on the doors of suspects. The operations come as the administration of former President Donald Trump has highlighted instances of voter fraud ahead of the midterm vote. While isolated cases of fraud occur in every election cycle, they remain exceedingly rare, and there is no evidence that non‑citizen voters have influenced the outcome of any election. In a statement following the ruling, DHS said its investigations were aimed at “removing aliens who vote and dilute the votes of US citizens” and that it has no plans to question or investigate people it believes to be US citizens. In their lawsuit challenging the DHS’s efforts, the California Nurses Association, National Nurses United, and the Voto Latino Foundation in San Francisco and Santa Clara County said some US citizens felt they were wrongly identified and questioned as part of the investigations. A lawyer for the groups said it was “clear from the start that DHS built its lists on bad data, never checked how often it was wrong, and recklessly sent agents to people’s homes weeks before an election.” Benjamin Farley, supervisory counsel for democracy defense at the National Immigration Law Center, said the ruling sends a strong message about voter intimidation ahead of the midterm vote. “Yesterday’s decision is a clear rebuke of the government’s efforts to scare voters away from the polls this November and a reminder that all US citizens – regardless of color, place of birth, or the nationality of their family members – have the right to participate in American elections free of intimidation,” he said. “No armed federal agent is going to stop us from casting our vote.”