DHS Alleges 250,000 Noncitizens Are Registered to Vote in Four States, Presses Officials to Comply
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent letters this past week to the secretaries of state in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania, warning that a preliminary DHS review found more than 250,000 potential noncitizens on their voter rolls. Mullin said California accounts for the bulk of that estimate, with as many as 190,832 potential noncitizen registrations, followed by 35,152 in New Jersey, 15,903 in Nevada and 14,576 in Pennsylvania. The letters, sent a day after President Trump's primetime address on election security, gave the four states two weeks to say whether they will work with DHS to verify the findings, with Mullin warning that noncompliant states could lose access to federal grants.
DHS said 23 other states already ran their voter files through the department's centralized database and turned up an additional 28,000 potential noncitizen registrations, along with 400,000 registered voters who are deceased. Mullin said violations carry penalties of up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines, and pledged a new election security plan from DHS's cybersecurity team within 30 days. The four targeted states, all led by Democratic governors, have not agreed to share their voter data with the federal government under the administration's preferred method.
The estimate is based on an analysis of commercial databases, according to a White House official, and neither DHS nor Trump has said whether any of the flagged registrants actually cast a ballot. The 250,000 figure represents roughly 0.16% of the more than 158 million votes counted in the 2024 general election. California's Secretary of State said her office would review the federal government's methodology before deciding how to respond to the letter.
What supporters say:
"Election security is national security," Mullin said, arguing that even a small number of ineligible votes cancels out legitimate ones and justifies aggressive verification efforts.
Supporters note DHS holds federal immigration records that states can't access on their own, making federal-state data sharing the only practical way to confirm citizenship status.
Backers point to the 23 states that already cooperated and turned up tens of thousands of additional flagged registrations, arguing it shows the review process works when states participate.
What critics say:
Critics, including election law experts, note the letters themselves call the findings a "preliminary review" that "may" reflect noncitizens, a caveat largely dropped from Trump and Mullin's public remarks.
Past purge efforts, like one in Florida in 2012, saw initial noncitizen voter estimates shrink dramatically after actual vetting, and a 2024 Georgia audit found just 20 noncitizens among 8.2 million voters.
A federal judge has already blocked a related use of the DHS database for this purpose on data-disclosure grounds, and voting rights experts say the database often misflags newly naturalized citizens.
Neither DHS nor Trump has said how many of the flagged registrants actually voted, leaving open whether any illegal votes were cast at all.
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Should the four states cooperate with DHS's request to verify their voter rolls for noncitizens? Yes 
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Sources:
#ElectionSecurity #VoterRolls #DHS #Midterms2026 #Immigration
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