The White House is pressing states to accelerate a nationwide voter-roll review that has already flagged hundreds of thousands of non-citizen registrations ahead of November’s midterms.
Department of Homeland Security officials obtained rolls from at least 47 states under the Trump administration’s “Unlawful Voter Initiative,” but a Sept. 1 email shows frustration over the pace. One DHS official wrote that they would “offer to raise with the WH COS if we can’t get forward progress,” referring to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
Federal prosecutors have charged at least 149 illegal aliens with unlawfully voting in elections since 1996, with 20 of those cases filed during Trump’s second term alone. The crackdown has included swing-state arrests in Pennsylvania, where prosecutors are pursuing non-citizens who allegedly cast ballots in past federal elections.
President Trump has made election integrity a centerpiece of his return to office. After an executive action tightening mail-in balloting rules was blocked by courts, he pressed Congress to pass stronger voter ID legislation, which has stalled. In a July speech at the White House, Trump accused China of illegally acquiring voter information on 220 million Americans and engaging in “other election-related activities to undermine my first administration and our 2020 campaign.”
The administration’s pressure has forced some Democratic-led states to acknowledge problems they previously downplayed. On July 21, New Jersey Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill admitted that 6,600 non-citizens were found on Garden State voter rolls and that roughly 400 had illegally cast ballots in elections between June 2023 and June 2024.
Reports said Wednesday that as many as 30,000 non-citizens have been added to voter rolls since 2000 due to software glitches and errors tied to automatic registration systems at DMVs and welfare offices. The White House says a broader DHS review assessed 278,000 non-citizen registrations nationwide, though the department has never released the full data.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin cited a preliminary review in a July letter noting that 190,832 non-citizens may currently be registered in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania. California alone may have 35,152 non-citizens on its rolls, according to the review first reported. Project Civica, a non-partisan government accountability organization, has indicated more than 10,000 non-citizens could be registered in New York.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services and other DHS subagencies, along with the State Department and Social Security Administration, have been working to match voter rolls against federal databases. DHS has purchased information from data brokers to fill gaps such as missing birthdates, according to the Sept. 1 email.
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis framed the developments as a long-overdue vindication. “The real story here is after decades of the media denying that non-citizens register and vote in our elections, they are finally being forced to admit after a flurry of recent arrests nationwide that it does happen,” she said.
“Democrats must stop refusing to pass the SAVE America Act—commonsense legislation that ensures Americans, and Americans only, decide our elections,” she added.
Republicans in Congress have sought to close the automatic-registration loophole through the SAVE America Act, but Senate Democrats have blocked the legislation. The administration’s push comes as states face mounting deadlines to finalize voter rolls before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The automatic registration systems at issue have operated for decades in nearly every state, signing up people at DMVs and welfare offices without requiring proof of citizenship. The White House wants that process reversed and rolls scrubbed before ballots are cast.
DHS continues its matching work across the 47 participating states as election officials prepare for November.