Armed, uniformed agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have been knocking on doors in several states to ask residents about their immigration status — and whether they have registered to vote or cast ballots in past elections, a CBS News investigation published on Wednesday has found.
Source: CBS News
The door-to-door visits are part of a federal effort to find potential noncitizen voters ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has alleged that as many as 250,000 noncitizens could be illegally registered to vote — a figure election experts have disputed. According to the Department of Justice, 156 people have been charged with voting-fraud-related offences since the start of the current administration, out of 227 million registered voters in the United States.
Many of those visited or arrested are green card holders and naturalized citizens. Only U.S. citizens may vote in federal elections, and registering or voting as a noncitizen is a federal offence — but every person charged is presumed innocent until a court decides, and advocates say lawful voters, including naturalized citizens, are being frightened away from the polls.
Visits ramped up in September, California arrests on Monday
CBS News reported that the home visits ramped up in September, in the thick of the midterm campaign season, and continued over the past weekend. On Monday, the Justice Department announced that HSI agents in California arrested more than 20 people, all of them green card holders, on allegations that they had illegally registered or cast a vote. In one case, dozens of federal agents went to the home of a 72-year-old man from Belize, who was taken from his home in his pajamas and charged over allegedly voting illegally in the past four elections. The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court.
According to internal documents reviewed by CBS News, hundreds of agents were pulled off their regular cases and assigned to track down alleged noncitizen voters in a 'surge' initiative. A directive describing a 'Criminal Voter Fraud' initiative — first reported by CNN — includes 'field reviews' in at least six states: California, Georgia, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin. In June, DHS directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), of which HSI is an enforcement arm, to assist in deportations of alleged noncitizen voters.
Source: CBS News / CNN
The 'Target List' and the quota dispute
In one video reviewed by CBS News, agents are filmed holding a document labelled 'Target List.' An HSI agent familiar with the initiative, speaking anonymously, said DHS pulls names from internal databases, voter rolls and other datasets, then tries to match them against citizenship data held by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). In September, a USCIS whistleblower said employees were asked to review the voter information of tens of thousands of people, including citizens, with quotas to investigate 40 subjects a day — roughly 12 minutes per subject. DHS denies any quota, saying: 'There is no quota on criminality. DHS will pursue each and every illegal voter to the fullest extent of the law.'
'What we're seeing now is the federal government is inserting itself into the state process for verifying their voter rolls in an unprecedented way,' said Jessica Marsden, a lawyer for Protect Democracy, which is suing the agency over the door-knocking campaign. Marsden noted that Homeland Security officials initially said they had identified nearly 16,000 noncitizens on Nevada's voter rolls, but were ultimately unable to provide evidence of a single illegally registered voter. Eric Balliet, an HSI agent for 23 years under multiple administrations, told CBS News he had never engaged in, or been aware of, any initiative that sent special agents to private homes to verify voter eligibility.
A DHS spokesperson defended the operation: 'HSI is actively rooting out and investigating election fraud wherever it can be found. Under President Trump, HSI is committed to restoring integrity to our election systems and ensuring that American citizens and only American citizens are electing American leaders.' The department added that 'those who are here legally and are not breaking other laws have nothing to fear.' Dr. Carol Anderson, a professor at Emory University, warned the visits send a signal to a much broader community — including naturalized citizens — 'do not show up at the polls. Do not vote.'
What is solid
- CBS News documented HSI door-to-door visits in several states asking about immigration status and voting history.
- The Justice Department says 156 people have been charged with voting-fraud-related offences since the start of the current administration.
- On Monday the Justice Department announced more than 20 arrests in California, all of them green card holders, over alleged illegal registration or voting — allegations not yet proven in court.
What is only claimed
- DHS's allegation that up to 250,000 noncitizens may be illegally registered to vote — disputed by election experts.
- A USCIS whistleblower's claim of 40-subjects-a-day investigation quotas — denied by DHS.