“[Letter to Secretary Mullin, led with Padilla, Durbin and Schumer and signed by 34 senators:] The 2026 midterm elections are already underway. Your unsubstantiated allegations of noncitizen voter fraud, public recitation of unreliable data, and unwarranted conditioning of continued grant funding for state election security measures on compliance with politically motivated requests for voter data appear to be calculated efforts to undermine confidence in our elections and risks wrongly disenfranchising voters.
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DHS Told Four States It Found 250,000 Noncitizens on Their Voter Rolls — On a Recorded Call, Its Own Staff Called the Nevada Number "the Ceiling," and the Confirmed Count Nevada Got Was 185
August 21, 2026
In July 2026, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent letters to the secretaries of state of California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania saying DHS had identified more than 250,000 noncitizens on their voter rolls, and warned officials who did not act that they faced loss of federal election aid, fines and possible prison time. In August, on a call with Nevada election officials that was recorded and later obtained by CNN, DHS staff conceded the state-level figures had not been individually vetted — a USCIS fraud-division official called Nevada's 15,903 "the ceiling" — and a day later the department handed Nevada a list of just 185 registrants it said it was confident were noncitizens, with more than 14,000 cases unresolved. Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, said his office "will not risk disenfranchising eligible voters" and called the federal effort unsophisticated and dangerous. DHS election-integrity lead Heather Honey told the state the department was "an open book." The reporting lands 10 weeks before the midterms, with DHS pressing states to purge voters on data it has not shown them.
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16 Statements
“[Letter to Secretary Mullin, led with Peters, Durbin and Schumer and signed by 34 senators:] The 2026 midterm elections are already underway. Your unsubstantiated allegations of noncitizen voter fraud, public recitation of unreliable data, and unwarranted conditioning of continued grant funding for state election security measures on compliance with politically motivated requests for voter data appear to be calculated efforts to undermine confidence in our elections and risks wrongly disenfranchising voters.
“We write to warn you against continued activities at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that seek to undermine the Constitutional authority of both Congress and states to administer elections and defy the directions of federal courts. … The 2026 midterm elections are already underway. [From the letter to Mullin that Fetterman signed with 33 other senators.]
“Your unsubstantiated allegations of noncitizen voter fraud, public recitation of unreliable data, and unwarranted conditioning of continued grant funding for state election security measures on compliance with politically motivated requests for voter data appear to be calculated efforts to undermine confidence in our elections and risks wrongly disenfranchising voters. … You have promoted the President's conspiracy theories about our elections, pressured states to participate in illegal activities, and explicitly threatened to reduce grant funding and initiate criminal investigations for those states that do not comply with the Administration's demands. [Letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin led by Kelly, Gary Peters, Dick Durbin, Alex Padilla and Chuck Schumer and signed by 34 senators, demanding he substantiate his July 17 claim that 250,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in four states.]
“[Bellows, who has refused to participate in the SAVE program, said the ruling will have no effect in Maine because it] does not force states to change the way we run our elections.
“Yes, you read that right. We had to file an emergency petition in the Supreme Court just so we could use government data to help states stop noncitizens from illegally voting.
“In my view, however, the harm caused by burdening or disenfranchising even a few lawful voters outweighs the nonexistent harm that the Government experiences when it is prevented from taking an action that it likely lacks the authority to take.
“The Department of Homeland Security is sending hundreds of officers who should be focused on our security on a wild goose chase to prove Trump's long-debunked election conspiracy theories.
“Donald Trump and his Administration are obsessed with election conspiracy theories and operate under the wrong assumption that they are above the law – they are not. … The truth is, this has nothing to do with protecting the integrity of our elections. That's just a pretext. … If this effort is truly legal, then why does DHS leadership have to promise its officers that they're not going to be held liable?
“SAVE does not disqualify any voter; instead, it merely notifies the States whether the federal government can confirm citizenship.
“[The district court entered an] indefensible order that threatens the integrity of upcoming elections by vacating the federal government's authority [to provide citizenship verification to the States].
“DHS representatives informed our office that the numbers they provided are preliminary. The Secretary of State's Office will not risk disenfranchising eligible voters.
“It's gross negligence to even think that we'd only take that dataset and truly apply it to our analysis of our voter rolls.
“The fact that they are so flippant about a fundamental constitutional right is unsettling.
“They are not sophisticated in their efforts to determine who is eligible to vote and who's not, and that's dangerous.
“We are an open book here. We're acting in very good faith, and we just want to help you.
Background (3)— earlier statements that set the stage▸
“One thing that I love about numbers, and I love about facts, is they don't lie.
“We will pursue maximum pressure on this.
“We've identified 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in just four states.