Senate Dems call for California probe into new DHS whistleblower allegations

Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla called on California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) to review new whistleblower allegations that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents recently used Californians’ sensitive personal information to improperly access the state’s voting records.

The senators warned that the whistleblower’s claims, which the Department of Justice (DOJ) partially confirmed in a recent court filing, “raise the very serious concern that U.S. citizens could be wrongfully flagged as ‘unlawful voters,’ and also indicate potential violations of California state law, including federal officers impersonating California voters to access their state voting records.”

“Considering California’s strong protections surrounding the use of voter registration information and [personally identifiable information], we believe this Disclosure merits a review by your office to determine what actions are necessary and appropriate to protect California voters,” Schiff and Padilla said in a letter to Bonta last week.

Bonta’s office did not immediately respond to Democracy Docket’s request for comment on the letter.

In a report last week, the whistleblower alleged that, for weeks, agents with the investigative arm of DHS’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) used personal information to misrepresent themselves as voters on state election agency websites to search dozens of people’s registration and voting records.

The searches, the whistleblower said, were part of a sweeping hunt for voting fraud ahead of the November elections. Dubbed the “Unlawful Voter Initiative,” agents were specifically looking for instances of noncitizens registering or casting a ballot.

President Donald Trump and his allies have pursued new voting restrictions and increased federal influence over election processes based on claims of widespread illegal voting by noncitizens. However, instances of noncitizens attempting to register and vote are exceedingly rare and never occur in sufficient numbers to affect the outcome of an election.

The whistleblower added that some searches were likely illegal, as many states restrict who can view individual voters’ records to protect people’s personal information and privacy.

In their letter to Bonta, Schiff and Padilla stressed that searches through California’s portal may have violated state law.

“California’s voter registration website is clearly intended for the use of voters themselves, and requires the use of sensitive personally identifiable information to access this voter data, including driver’s license number and/or partial Social Security Number,” the senators said. 

Training materials for the searches that the whistleblower disclosed strongly indicated that federal agents conducted searches through California’s portal. 

The materials stated that, to assist with the agents’ searches, DHS gave USCIS a copy of  California’s public voter registration list. California’s portal was also linked in an internal website USCIS created to facilitate state voter record searches.

“Inaccurate claims of ‘unlawful voters’ and erroneous federal law enforcement records can result in serious consequences for Californians, including many naturalized citizens,” Schiff and Padilla also warned. “The Trump Administration may also use these claims to further threaten state and local election officials in California and undermine or challenge the election results themselves.”

The senators noted that the searches occurred amid the DOJ’s lawsuit against California and several other states and Washington, D.C., to force them to give the federal government their unredacted voter registration lists. 

Schiff and Padilla’s letter adds to the growing number of calls to review the whistleblower’s allegations.

In a separate letter last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Padilla also called on DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to “immediately” investigate the whistleblower’s claims.