DHS Noncitizen Voting Records Challenge (American Oversight)
American Oversight v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security
A pro-voting lawsuit seeking records regarding the Trump administration’s claims about noncitizen voting.
Background
American Oversight (AO) sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for failing to respond in a timely manner to its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests regarding the Trump administration’s claims that thousands of noncitizens registered to vote in federal elections. The complaint comes after DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin on July 17, 2026, released statistics indicating that DHS identified 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Nevada. AO filed a FOIA request seeking records to back up these claims. The lawsuit seeks records demonstrating DHS’s methodology and data sources behind its numbers.
Why it Matters
This lawsuit comes just one day after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued DHS on a similar basis. The Trump administration has spread conspiracies of illegal, noncitizen voting since Trump lost the 2020 election. Allegations of noncitizens voting have escalated as the U.S. Department of Justice’s campaign for states’ unredacted voter rolls has failed miserably. DHS Secretary Mullin has also threatened to prosecute state officials who refuse to cooperate with DHS. False and misleading claims like President Donald Trump’s July 16 address to the nation — in which he claimed that 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote in federal elections — and DHS’s refusal to clarify how noncitizen voting statistics are produced further fuel mistrust and undermine Americans’ confidence in voting.
Latest Updates:
- September 30, 2026: Complaint filed.