DHS failed to provide records supporting Trump’s allegations of noncitizen voting, watchdog says

Key federal agencies failed to provide any records to back up President Donald Trump’s allegations that tens of thousands of noncitizens are registered to vote in various blue states, a nonpartisan government watchdog said in a new lawsuit. 

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, told a federal court in Washington, D.C., that the administration is violating an open records law by failing to hand over information on its methodology and data sources on the matter.

Trump claimed without evidence during a primetime address to the nation in July that 278,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in federal elections. The unfounded allegation is part of a pattern of Trump spreading misinformation about voting fraud since losing the 2020 presidential race as he pushes Congress to pass onerous new restrictions on voting.

CREW filed several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests asking how the administration determined that 278,000 figure.

The same day as Trump’s speech, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement asserting 250,000 noncitizens are registered in states like California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Secretary Markywane Mullin then sent letters to state election officials warning them about the alleged noncitizens on their rolls.

The lawsuit demands the Department of Homeland Security turn over records showing how it calculated that figure.

“DHS has declined to disclose its methodology despite election officials in at least three of the four states demanding it,” CREW wrote in its filing. “Without a transparent methodology, independent experts assert the administration’s figures cannot be evaluated and should not be credited.”

American Oversight, another government watchdog, also sued DHS for not responding to its own FOIA requests on noncitizen voting records in a separate lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The administration faces several lawsuits accusing federal agencies of defying FOIA requests or court orders for information regarding its plans for the midterm elections, including any records related to the potential seizure of ballots or deployment of federal agents to the polls. 

So far, the administration’s efforts to find widespread noncitizen voting have turned up squat.

In Nevada, DHS initially told state officials there were as many as 15,903 potential noncitizens illegally registered to vote. That number then fell to 185. Just last week, Nevada election officials said the 185 individuals flagged are in fact all citizens.

In Pennsylvania, DHS admitted in late August that it didn’t have “high confidence” in its previous assertion that more than 14,000 noncitizens were on the voter rolls. 

CREW said in its lawsuit that states “had no way to verify DHS’s claims” on noncitizen voters as “the agency failed to provide any underlying data or methodology.”

Not only that, but CREW said it’s “not clear how DHS could have compiled these statistics through legal means.”

The Department of Justice is 0-25 in its attempts to force states to surrender voter files containing sensitive information, including driver’s license numbers and Social Security data. Yet, CREW said the letters DHS sent to state election officials “indicate it matched registrants on precisely those fields.”

The watchdog also questioned whether the administration violated a federal court order that blocked DHS from using its flawed Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to remove voters from registration rolls. “DHS was prohibited from using the modified SAVE system until the Supreme Court stayed the order on September 25, 2026,” the group wrote.

“The public needs these records now in order to evaluate the truth of DHS’s claims, respond appropriately, and restore confidence in the election process ahead of the midterm elections,” the watchdog said.