Federal Judge Blocks DHS Voter Identification Operations Ahead of Midterms

Homeland Security targets nine states in a push to identify voting fraud, a move critics denounce as tantamount to voter intimidation.

A federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to halt operations targeting non-citizen voters in nine states ahead of the midterm elections.

Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin ruled that the investigations likely violate a Voting Rights Act provision prohibiting voter intimidation, adding that the DHS may have relied on flawed data.

“an objectively reasonable fear of law enforcement entanglements that intimidates citizens from urging or aiding others in exercising their right to vote”, she wrote.

The ruling applies to federal efforts targeting California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.

The Department of Homeland Security has described the effort as a push to identify individuals who have committed voter fraud, noting that some local offices have posted photos of agents knocking on suspects’ doors.

The operations coincide with the administration of former President Donald Trump seeking to highlight instances of voter fraud ahead of the November 3 midterm vote.

Although recorded instances of fraud occur in every election cycle, such isolated cases remain exceedingly rare.

There is no evidence to indicate that non-citizen voters have influenced the outcome of any election at any level in the country.

In a statement following the ruling, the DHS maintained its investigations were aimed at “removing aliens who vote and dilute the votes of US citizens”.

“We have no plans to question or investigate people we believe to be US citizens,” it said.

In a lawsuit challenging the DHS’s efforts, the California Nurses Association, National Nurses United, the Voto Latino Foundation, San Francisco and Santa Clara County argued that some US citizens were wrongly identified and questioned as part of the investigations.

A lawyer representing the groups said “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 sent 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.”

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