Judge orders DHS to halt non-citizen voter investigations in nine states

A US federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to halt operations aimed at identifying non-citizens who voted in nine states ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, according to Al Jazeera and NPR. Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin of the US District Court ruled that the investigations likely violated a section of the Voting Rights Act prohibiting voter intimidation. She also said DHS may have relied on flawed data when compiling the cases.

The order covers California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin. DHS had publicised what it described as an effort to identify people who committed voter fraud, with some local offices posting photographs of agents going to the homes of suspects. The judge said the operations could create “an objectively reasonable fear of law enforcement entanglements” and discourage citizens from encouraging or assisting others to exercise their voting rights.

NPR summarised the ruling as finding that the department’s field operations likely breached the Voting Rights Act. The case was brought by the California Nurses Association, National Nurses United, the Voto Latino Foundation, San Francisco and Santa Clara County. The groups said some US citizens had been wrongly identified and questioned during the investigations.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs said DHS had built its lists using unreliable information, had not checked how often the data was wrong and had sent agents to people’s homes in the weeks before the election. Benjamin Farley of the National Immigration Law Center said the decision was a clear warning against voter intimidation. DHS defended the programme after Thursday’s ruling.

The department said its investigations were intended to remove non-citizens who vote and thereby dilute the votes of US citizens. It said it had no plans to question or investigate people it believed were US citizens. The administration of President Donald Trump has made alleged voter fraud a prominent issue before the midterm vote.

Al Jazeera reported that while instances of fraud are recorded in election cycles, they remain exceedingly rare. It also said there was no evidence that non-citizen voting had affected the outcome of any election at any level in the United States. The ruling therefore interrupts a federal operation that the administration presented as an enforcement effort, while the challengers characterised it as a threat to lawful voters.

The supplied reports do not indicate whether the government will appeal or how quickly the affected DHS operations will be dismantled. Farley said the order affirmed that US citizens, regardless of colour, birthplace or family nationality, had the right to participate in elections without intimidation. The case comes as officials and political groups prepare for the November 3 midterm elections.