Recently the U.S. Department of Justice has requested information from California regarding non-citizens. Specifically, they are seeking data on voter registrations systematically canceled since 2020. This move legitimizes and further buttresses former President Donald Trump’s arguments. He makes the case that millions of non-citizens are voting in our elections, particularly in deep blue cities with large immigrant populations like Los Angeles. Trump claimed these cities exploit “illegal aliens to expand their voter base” and “cheat in elections.”
The request, started by the Trump administration’s voter fraud commission, aims to collect data from California counties on the number of non-citizens on the state’s voter rolls. We want to know how many non-citizens registrations were canceled in total. We ask for records of their voter registrations, their voting history, date of birth, driver’s license number, and last four digits of their Social Security number. Trump’s justification for this inquiry rests on two federal laws: the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
Relatedly, the Department of Justice’s involvement in this issue has generated a lot of controversy. In 2018, a federal prosecutor in North Carolina charged 20 people with non-citizen status with the crime of illegally voting. All but three of those charged allegedly said they did not know they were ineligible to vote. Moreover, the Justice Department has previously sued Orange County, California, after officials redacted certain information in response to a similar request.
They claimed that only 17 non-citizens have signed up to vote since 2020. Remarkably, sixteen of these folks are non-citizens. The county took it one step further, proposing to work with the Department of Justice on a confidentiality agreement. Instead, they were met with a lawsuit.
New Hampshire and Minnesota have both flatly rejected DOJ’s requests for information. Their decision represents a courageous stand against the tide of noncooperation. How it would be used, how information would be retained and secured were specific concerns laid out by a lawyer representing Minnesota’s secretary of state.
“The Department of Justice did not, however, identify any legal basis in its June 25 letter that would entitle it to Minnesota’s voter registration list. Nor did it explain how this information would be used, stored, and secured,” – a lawyer for the Minnesota secretary of state’s office.
David Becker, executive director for the Center for Election Innovation & Research, described his deep concern about these advancements. He stated,
“It’s deeply troubling.”
He further slammed the legal basis for these requests. He noted that there is no federal law that says states must regularly comb their voter rolls for non-citizens.
“There is literally nothing in federal law anywhere that requires states to continually search for non-citizens on their voter lists,” – David Becker.
Samantha Tarazi, CEO and co-founder of Voting Rights Lab, expressed alarm at the threat Trump posed. She argues that they are a part of a larger strategy to rig upcoming elections.
“These efforts make it clear President Trump is preparing to use the power of his office to interfere in the 2026 election,” – Samantha Tarazi.
Mike Sacks moderated a discussion with Sean Morales-Doyle about the implications of the Department of Justice’s renewed interest in non-citizen voting. He noted how this change undermines efforts to enforce protections of the law already established on behalf of the voting rights.
“This refocus is troubling in part because it means taking away focus from actually enforcing the legal protections for voting rights that the voting rights section has historically been enforcing,” – Sean Morales-Doyle.
Morales-Doyle noted that it’s an increasing trend. Conservative organizations have been arguing that many of these jurisdictions aren’t purging their rolls of these non-citizens properly.
“For years now, we’ve seen suits from those conservative groups saying that jurisdictions aren’t purging enough folks from their rolls and claiming that they’ve identified non-citizens on the rolls and that kind of thing. And now we’re seeing the Department of Justice do something very similar,” – Sean Morales-Doyle.
Becker closed by lamenting the misinterpretation of federal law when it comes to voter list maintenance.
“It reflects a pretty shocking misunderstanding of federal law regarding list maintenance,” – David Becker.