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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent letters to the secretaries of state in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania, saying a Department of Homeland Security review had identified more than 250,000 potential noncitizens registered to vote across the four states.
The letters, sent to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, New Jersey Secretary of State Dale Caldwell, Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar and Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, asked each official to confirm whether they would work with DHS “to ensure free, fair and honest elections.”
According to DHS, the preliminary review identified as many as 190,832 potential noncitizens registered to vote in California, 35,152 in New Jersey, 15,903 in Nevada and 14,576 in Pennsylvania.
Fox News Digital, which obtained copies of the letters, reported a slightly higher total, saying DHS identified more than 256,000 potential noncitizens after comparing voter rolls with federal immigration records.
A primetime address preceded the announcement
The letters followed President Donald Trump‘s primetime White House claimed that newly declassified intelligence showed Chinese interference in the 2020 election and called for stricter voter identification and citizenship verification requirements.
The next morning, Mullin announced the findings during a news conference, saying DHS had identified roughly 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada.
According to the letters, DHS compared publicly available voter registration records with federal immigration data to identify potential matches.
Mullin argued that allowing even one noncitizen to vote “cancels the vote of one U.S. citizen,” adding that states control voter registration records while the federal government maintains immigration databases needed for verification.
How significant is the number?
Independent analyses placed the figure in a broader context.
CBS News reported that 250,000 registrations represent about 0.1 percent of all registered voters nationwide and roughly 0.6 percent of the nearly 40 million registered voters across the four states in 2024.
The outlet also noted that federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, while no state permits noncitizens to vote in statewide contests. Only municipalities in three states and the District of Columbia allow noncitizen voting in certain local elections, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Fact-checkers also urged caution.
Repeating the figure during a news conference, Mullin said, “We’ve identified 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in just four states.”
Voting experts noted that voter and immigration databases can contain outdated records, duplicate entries and mistaken identities and that preliminary matches often decline substantially after verification.
PolitiFact also noted that the DHS data does not show whether any of the identified individuals actually voted or affected the outcome of any election.
Threats of fines and prison time for election officials
Mullin also warned that election officials who declined to use DHS’s preferred verification tools could face legal consequences.
“If election officials are provided the information DHS believes is necessary to secure their elections and choose not to act, those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,” he said.
Democracy Docket reported that the warning extended beyond the four states named in the letters, saying Mullin threatened election officials in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., with possible criminal charges if they refused to run voter rolls through the federal database.
It was also noted that Mullin did not explain how DHS obtained the voter registration data or claim that any of the identified noncitizens had actually cast ballots.
Legal obstacles facing DHS’s verification push
The database DHS wants states to use has already faced legal setbacks.
A federal judge blocked its use for voter-roll verification, ruling that repurposing an immigration database violated restrictions governing the disclosure of Social Security records. The system has also been criticized for producing inaccurate matches during voter-roll reviews.
CBS News reported that California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania have all declined the Trump administration’s separate requests to provide voter data to the federal government, while 23 other states have participated in an updated federal verification system.
The outlet also reported that the administration’s broader legal campaign has encountered repeated setbacks. Courts have dismissed 16 related lawsuits and a federal appeals court ruled that the Justice Department is not entitled to Michigan’s unredacted voter registration list.
