Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin escalated pressure on state election officials Friday, warning of criminal penalties and the loss of federal grants for those who refuse to comply with the Trump administration's voter roll screening methods.
Speaking from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Mullin announced that DHS had identified more than 250,000 noncitizens on voting lists across California, New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. He demanded states cross-reference their voter rolls against a federal database maintained by the department and threatened those who decline with potential prosecution.
"If you're illegal and attempted to vote, or you tried to vote illegally for someone else, we will find you and we will charge you," Mullin said. He warned that election officials who receive federal data about ineligible voters and then fail to act could face fines, penalties, or even imprisonment.
The secretary outlined potential criminal consequences for violations, citing penalties of up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines for illegal voter registration or voting. He promised DHS teams would conduct sweeps of election records before and after the midterms to identify ineligible votes from noncitizens and deceased individuals.
The announcement built on remarks made Thursday by President Trump, who characterized elections as vulnerable to being stolen and rigged. Mullin framed the effort as necessary to restore public trust in the voting system rather than relitigating the 2020 election.
The DHS database at the center of the initiative has faced significant legal and practical obstacles. A federal judge previously blocked its use for voter roll verification, ruling that repurposing a database historically designed for immigration benefits assessment violated disclosure rules governing Social Security records. Election officials and voting rights experts have flagged the system as error-prone, noting it frequently misidentifies newly naturalized citizens as noncitizens.
"The database can be outdated," voting rights groups argue, pointing to cases where people wrongly identified as noncitizens were purged from voter rolls. Election law professor Rick Hasen questioned the administration's underlying claims, writing that if there were genuine evidence of noncitizen voting on a significant scale, indictments would follow. "Trump has been hounding US attorneys to bring such cases, and the fact that he hasn't shows that these claims likely have no legs," Hasen stated.
Mullin sent letters to state secretaries of state requesting responses within two weeks and seeking commitments to collaborate with federal authorities. He said the updated SAVE database allows users to search multiple records simultaneously and provides access to Social Security numbers, flagging registrants for further evaluation. DHS officials maintain the system only flags individuals for review rather than making direct citizenship determinations.
The aggressive moves reflect a broader Trump administration push to overhaul election administration. The Justice Department has sued states for voter roll data and warned election officials of criminal penalties for knowingly retaining noncitizens. Trump has fired dozens of employees from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which helps secure elections, and removed the leadership of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
An FBI raid in January seized ballots from an elections hub in Fulton County, Georgia, a state Trump lost in 2020. Mullin said Trump has directed DHS to release an updated election infrastructure plan within 30 days.
Neither Mullin nor Trump disclosed how many noncitizens have actually voted in recent elections. Voting rights experts note that while such instances occur, they are exceptionally rare, and America's decentralized election system serves as a natural safeguard against large-scale fraud.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Using threat of imprisonment to strongarm states into adopting a flawed database is governance by fear, not evidence, and it threatens to disenfranchise legitimate voters while solving a problem that barely exists."
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