Agents question residents about voting
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
Armed, uniformed DHS agents went door to door in several states asking residents about immigration status and voting.
A judge then blocked the sweeps in nine states ahead of the midterms.
Background
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the federal agency whose armed, uniformed agents conducted the door-to-door questioning; its Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arm, which typically handles criminal cross-border cases like drug smuggling and money laundering, ran a "surge initiative" of field interviews. The visits are part of a nationwide push by the Trump administration to investigate potential voting by people without legal status ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections. Noncitizens are already barred by law from voting in federal elections, and the sources say evidence of widespread voter fraud is not there.
How it unfolded
- Jun 2026DHS directed ICE to assist in deportations of alleged noncitizen voters.
- Aug 31, 2026An HSI internal memo describes a "surge initiative" starting Sept. 1 that includes field interviews.
- Sep 1, 2026The surge begins; the memo names California, Georgia, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin as September targets, with more locations redacted.
- Sep 3, 2026HSI's Kansas City office posts photos saying agents were in St. Louis investigating suspected unlawful voting, including one outside the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners.
- Sep 2026Home visits ramp up during the midterm campaign season and continue over the past weekend.
- Oct 15, 2026A federal lawsuit is filed listing nine states, including Missouri, as targets of the HSI voter-fraud investigation.
- Oct 19, 2026The Justice Department announces HSI agents in California arrested more than 20 green card holders over alleged illegal registration or voting.
- Oct 21, 2026A CBS News investigation reports armed, uniformed DHS agents going door to door in several states asking about immigration status and voting.
- Oct 21, 2026Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issues a preliminary injunction blocking DHS election-related field operations that could sweep up U.S. citizens in nine states.
- Oct 22, 2026Reports detail the operation and ruling; DHS alleges up to 250,000 noncitizens could be illegally registered, a figure election experts dispute, and DOJ says 156 people have been charged with voting-fraud offenses since the start of the Trump administration.
Who’s saying what
- Official
- DHS says HSI is "actively rooting out and investigating election fraud wherever it can be found" and is committed to "restoring integrity to our election systems."
- Official
- DOJ lawyers argue the government has authority to investigate potential voting by noncitizens and that barring such investigations "would damage the public interest, not serve it."
- Support
- Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said "you're damn right we're gonna have ICE surround the polls come November."
- Caution
- Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, called the operation an "anti-democratic departure" and "law enforcement activity aimed at intimidating the public."
- Expert
- Protect Democracy lawyer Jessica Marsden said the government is inserting itself into state voter-verification "in an unprecedented way" and "in a way that seems maximally designed to scare lawful voters."
- Expert
- Former HSI agent Eric Balliet said that in 23 years with the agency he never engaged in or was aware of any initiative sending special agents to private homes to verify voter eligibility.
Still unverified
DHS has alleged as many as 250,000 noncitizens could be illegally registered to vote, a figure election experts dispute; it is unknown when the HSI photographs were taken or how many people are under investigation, and the judge warned of a high likelihood of error in the government's process for identifying targets.