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DOJ and DHS actions over California noncitizen voter claims

Updated 32 times since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

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2026-10-22 22:23 UTC → 2026-10-23 00:49 UTC · added ~~removed~~

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is engaged in a federal lawsuit against California officials, alleging that over 20,000 individuals on state voter rolls may not be citizens. The DOJ seeks a court order to segregate these ballots to prevent potential fraud, arguing that California’s refusal to verify these flagged voters constitutes a ‘willful disregard of federal law.’ California Attorney General Rob Bonta has challenged the litigation, calling it a ‘reckless political stunt’ that threatens to disenfranchise thousands of voters. Los Angeles election officials have questioned the reliability of the data provided by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), noting that a sample analysis of 200 flagged names showed approximately 38.9 percent had U.S. birthplaces. Additionally, officials noted that only about 7,000 of the 20,000 flagged individuals actually reside in Los Angeles County. Simultaneously, DHS has deployed armed Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents to conduct door-to-door inquiries in several states to investigate potential noncitizen voting. A federal judge, Araceli Martínez-Olguín, has issued a preliminary injunction blocking DHS from conducting certain election-related field operations and interviews in nine states, including California, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. The judge ruled that these methods could intimidate legal U.S. citizens and likely violate the Voting Rights Act. The ruling noted that DHS efforts rely on flawed data that includes legal citizens, creating an ‘objectively reasonable fear of law enforcement entanglements.’ The order prohibits investigations targeting individuals whom officials know or should reasonably suspect are U.S. citizens and is set to remain in effect until after the November midterm elections, pending an appeal by the Trump administration. Recent developments indicate that the DHS ‘Criminal Voter Fraud’ initiative has led to the arrest of over 20 green card holders in California for allegedly illegal registration or voting.

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