DHS Noncitizen Voting Records Challenge
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security
A pro-voting lawsuit seeking records regarding the Trump administration’s claims about noncitizen voting.
Background
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services 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 lawsuit comes after President Donald Trump’s July 16, 2026, address to the nation — in which he claimed that 278,000 non-citizens registered to vote in federal elections — and DHS released statistics claiming that 250,000 non-citizens are illegally registered to vote. CREW asserts it is unclear how DHS arrived at these numbers. The lawsuit seeks records demonstrating DHS’s methodology and data sources behind its numbers.
Why it Matters
The Trump administration has spread conspiracies of illegal, noncitizen voting since Trump lost the 2020 election. Allegations of non-citizens 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 Trump’s July 16 address to the nation and DHS’s refusal to clarify how noncitizen voting statistics are produced further fuel mistrust and undermine Americans’ confidence in voting.
Latest Updates:
- October 5, 2026: The parties filed a joint status report, indicating that the first production of documents will be turned over by October 17th.
- September 29, 2026: Plaintiffs filed their complaint and a Motion for Preliminary Injunction.