Judge Orders DHS to Halt Door-Knocking Voter Probes Aimed at Likely Citizens in Nine States Until Election Day

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (TodayViralUSA) — A federal judge late Wednesday ordered the Department of Homeland Security to stop sending agents to people’s homes to question them about their immigration status and voting history in nine states, including California and New York, ruling that the practice likely violates the Voting Rights Act less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin barred federal immigration authorities from conducting “elections-related field operations and field interviews” where officials know, suspect or should reasonably suspect the people involved are U.S. citizens. The order runs until polls close on Election Day. She put it on hold until 5 p.m. Friday to give the government time to appeal.

Agents at the door

The ruling targets an operation by Homeland Security Investigations, which has posted photos and videos of agents approaching homes in several states. The Trump administration says the visits are part of a crackdown on illegal voting by noncitizens. Critics argue they risk frightening eligible voters away from the polls. CBS News documented the operation in an investigation published earlier Wednesday.

The case was brought by groups including the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United. The judge found the policy likely runs afoul of a provision of the Voting Rights Act that makes it illegal to “intimidate, threaten, or coerce” people who help others vote or take part in voter mobilization.

“Plaintiffs do not claim, nor does the Court find, that it is unlawful for federal officials to undertake investigations into unlawful voting in federal elections,” Martinez-Olguin wrote.

She said the plaintiffs were instead seeking to stop DHS from investigating citizens “in a way that intimidates and threatens” their members’ efforts to encourage or help others to vote. The judge also pointed to a “high likelihood of error” in how the government built its list of targets, which draws on agency records and commercially available data.

Reaction and the wider push

Beau Tremitiere, counsel at Protect Democracy, one of the groups behind the suit, said DHS “built its lists on bad data, never checked how often it was wrong, and recklessly sent agents to people’s homes weeks before an election.” CBS News said it had asked DHS for comment.

President Donald Trump has made noncitizen voting a central theme of his second term, though there is little evidence that it happens on a wide scale. The Justice Department says 156 people have been charged with voting-fraud-related offenses since the administration began. Earlier this week, the department announced charges against dozens of green card holders in California accused of illegally registering to vote in federal elections.