ICE officials strategized how to deport 400 noncitizens who voted in New Jersey as a result of state error

Department of Homeland Security officials discussed how to deport up to 400 noncitizens in New Jersey who voted in elections after being accidentally registered through a state software error, according to internal government documents made public Wednesday.

The documents, obtained by Democracy Forward* through a Freedom of Information Act request, show the extraordinary lengths DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have gone in trying to support President Donald Trump’s unfounded claims of rampant noncitizen voting.

The batch of records includes email correspondence between Adam Loiacono, ICE’s deputy principal legal advisor for enforcement and litigation; Charles Wall, ICE’s deputy director; and others discussing the registration mistake that resulted in fewer than 400 noncitizens voting in New Jersey.

“Based upon the available open source information, it appears 6,000+ aliens were registered to vote through ‘no fault of their own,’” Loiacono wrote. “It appears from the articles that the registration was ‘automatic.’ That said, the articles indicate that 400 such aliens actually voted. And, it appears they voted in a federal election.” 

Loiacono said they would be “inadmissible” and “deportable” under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

“There is no requirement that the alien have knowledge that he or she has illegally voted, and no conviction is required,” he added.

Wall said Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of DHS and ICE, is “heavily working these cases.”

“Ok great keep me posted,” someone replied, though their name and email address are redacted.

In July, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) disclosed a software failure that incorrectly registered roughly 6,600 noncitizens to vote between June 2023 and June 2024. Fewer than 400 of those individuals cast a ballot in elections, Sherrill said.

The individuals were accidentally registered when they applied for a driver’s license or ID card through New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle System. Sherrill said some of the individuals even identified themselves as noncitizens but were accidentally registered to vote anyway.

“They were registered as Democrats, Republicans and the majority unaffiliated and were scattered across the state,” the governor said. She added that there was no evidence at the time that any elections were swayed by the error.

The glitch nonetheless prompted an uproar from Republicans and the Trump administration. 

The Department of Justice demanded that New Jersey hand over information on both the noncitizens who were mistakenly registered and those who cast ballots and said it would use the incident in its lawsuit seeking access to the state’s unredacted voter rolls. Sherrill said she would not comply with that request. 

Sherrill called it “unacceptable” that the software vendor made the error and that the Motor Vehicle Commission took a year to catch it, all of which she noted took place before she entered office. She said the state would remove any residents from the voter rolls who were erroneously added in the glitch.

The governor also suggested the state would not charge those who illegally cast a ballot, saying “it would be the utmost hypocrisy for the state to charge them when it’s our fault.”

“However, I would not put it past the federal government, so we are working very hard on ways in which we can protect people here in the state of New Jersey,” she said in July.

*Democracy Docket Founder Marc Elias is the chair of Democracy Forward’s board.