DHS Reassigns Fraud Officers to Purge Noncitizen Voter Rolls

The Department of Homeland Security has reassigned hundreds of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services fraud detection officers to identify noncitizens registered to vote. This shift removes these officers from their primary duties of screening immigration applications for security threats and false information. The move is part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump to combat noncitizen voting, with the administration claiming approximately 278,000 noncitizens are unlawfully registered across several states.

Despite these claims, federal officials have admitted that initial figures were inflated. In Nevada, DHS officials acknowledged that an initial estimate of 16,000 noncitizens was a ceiling requiring manual review; the agency later provided the state with a list of only 185 voters they were confident were noncitizens, though 14,000 cases remain under review. Similar disputes have emerged in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where Governor Mikie Sherrill reported that fewer than 400 of 6,600 improperly registered individuals actually voted.

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin has pledged full departmental resources to the project and threatened to withhold taxpayer funds or prosecute local election officials who refuse to participate in federal security programs. State officials in Nevada, California, and Pennsylvania have countered that they cannot purge rolls without verifiable evidence, citing the risk of disenfranchising eligible citizens.