With a little more than two months to go before November’s midterm elections, the Department of Homeland Security has opened an intensive election fraud investigation in at least nine states, according to internal Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) guidance obtained by CNN.
A DHS spokesperson said HSI cannot comment on active investigations. The official did say that the investigations unit, a division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “is actively rooting out and investigating election fraud wherever it can be found.”
“HSI is committed to restoring integrity to our election systems and ensuring that American citizens and only American citizens are electing American leaders,” the spokesperson said Tuesday in an email responding to The Federalist’s request for comment.
Restoring election integrity has been a tall order amid sagging voter confidence in the system, dirty voter rolls in states across the country, and the refusal by Democrat-led states to release their voter rolls for auditing by federal officials. The “coordinated voter fraud surge initiative” comes as concern rises over noncitizens showing up in voter registration databases — and casting ballots in federal elections.
‘Zero Evidence?’
On Tuesday, HSI launched a coordinated criminal voter fraud “surge” aimed at pursuing investigative leads, conducting field interviews, and supporting timely prosecutorial review, the guidance states, according to CNN. Investigators will conduct the surge through mid-October in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin.
The left-leaning St. Louis Post Dispatch posted a seething editorial in June blasting Missouri’s Secretary of State for following federal law and releasing the Show Me State’s voters rolls to the DOJ. As cases of election/voter fraud continue to rise, the leftist Dispatch clung to the false assertion that there is “of course, zero evidence or even indication that illegal noncitizens voting virtually ever happens.”
Oh, it happens. Much more frequently than the lying corporate media like to admit.
In its statement to The Federalist, DHS noted multiple voter fraud arrests, including charges filed in March against a Mauritanian illegal alien accused of illegally voting in U.S. elections since 2008. Last month, a criminal illegal alien from Colombia was sentenced to three years in a federal prison for committing identity theft to vote in several elections, including the 2020 presidential election. On Tuesday, Shonda Lou Barnes, city manager for the Town of Mannsville, Oklahoma, was arrested on voter fraud charges.
Troubling Numbers
DHS says since April 2025, more than 24,000 cases have been identified through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) online verification program — administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — as potential non-U.S. citizens who were on voter rolls. Those cases have been referred to HSI for further investigation.
“DHS is laser focused on prosecuting and removing aliens who vote and preventing the dilution of the votes of U.S. citizens,” the department official told The Federalist. “Our message to aliens who vote in American elections is clear: we will find you, arrest you, and you will face the consequences — including criminal charges and deportation.”
The criminal voter fraud investigation surge follows on the heels of New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s admission in July that some 6,600 noncitizens landed on the Garden State’s voter rolls in 2023 and 2024 — and hundreds of the foreign nationals voted in federal elections.
The Democrat governor has stonewalled Republican efforts to get to the bottom of the election integrity disaster. Republican Study Committee member Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., is not happy with Sherrill’s recalcitrance. Van Drew told Fox News over the weekend that he is working with the full Judiciary Committee to bypass Sherrill and obtain the records from Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell, who heads up New Jersey’s election division. The congressman said they will issue subpoenas if necessary.
Van Drew, who serves as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee, said he plans to hold a hearing into New Jersey’s election integrity mess. The question is, how many more noncitizens are on the rolls given New Jersey’s sanctuary state status, its liberal law that grants driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, and a motor-voter law that automatically registers license applicants to vote?
‘Election Security at Risk’
DHS officials have said they are ramping up resources to investigate potential election fraud. They have their work cut out for them.
Dirty voters rolls in states across the country plague the U.S. election system, and open the door to election fraud. In California, a review by the Public Interest Legal Foundation last year found nearly 95,000 deceased registrants, tens of thousands of interstate duplicates, and thousands more registrants with placeholder or fictitious birthdates.
The election integrity watchdog notes California’s dirty voter rolls are just the tip of the iceberg.
“These are failures that put election security at risk,” said PILF President J. Christian Adams in a press release. “California’s voter roll is riddled with errors. State officials must act to fix these problems before another election cycle passes.”
State officials have done little to clean up the mess. The messy voter list paired with California’s lax laws allowing first-time voters to use insurance cards, gym membership and other alternative forms of identification to register to vote can’t help but make Golden State election administration vulnerable to fraud.
The vulnerabilities demand congressional passage of a comprehensive election integrity bill that has stalled in the Senate, Trump administration officials have reiterated.
“President Trump has been unequivocal: Nothing is more fundamental than the integrity and security of our elections,” the DHS spokesperson said. “That’s why the Trump Administration has repeatedly called on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act — commonsense legislation that requires voters to present photo ID and implements other critical measures to protect federal elections from fraud.”
