A federal judge ruled late Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security's practice of knocking on doors to ask residents about their immigration status — and whether they have voted in recent elections — likely violates the Voting Rights Act, according to CBS News reporting on the ruling.
Source: CBS News
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin ordered federal immigration authorities to stop carrying out 'elections-related field operations and field interviews' in nine states if the operations are likely to involve people whom officials know, suspect, or should reasonably know or suspect are U.S. citizens. The nine states covered are California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.
The order will remain in effect until polls close on Election Day. The judge stayed her ruling until 5 p.m. on Friday, giving the government an opportunity to seek an appeal.
Why the court acted
Martinez-Olguin sided with groups that sued over the noncitizen-voting investigation surge, including the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United. She found the policy likely ran afoul of a section of the Voting Rights Act that makes it illegal to intimidate, threaten or coerce people who assist others with voting or take part in voter mobilisation.
The ruling followed a CBS News investigation published earlier Wednesday documenting the door-knock operation. Homeland Security Investigations has posted photos and videos of agents approaching homes in multiple states. The administration describes the effort as a crackdown on voting by noncitizens, while critics say it could intimidate legal voters.
According to the ruling as summarised in reporting on the case, agents worked from target lists built on commercial data and information from government agencies — data the court characterised as voluminous and unreliable, raising a significant risk of error in who gets questioned.
Judge: Araceli Martinez-Olguin (U.S. District Court, San Francisco). Covers 9 states including California and New York. In effect until polls close on Election Day; stayed until 5 p.m. Friday for a possible appeal. The ruling does not declare investigations into unlawful voting illegal — it bars the challenged door-knock field operations involving likely U.S. citizens.
For Punjabi and other immigrant families in the covered states — including large communities in California, New York, Washington and Pennsylvania — the ruling means federal agents cannot carry out these elections-related door interviews involving likely citizens while the order is in force. The case continues, and the government may still appeal before the Friday deadline.