Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin recently testified before a House committee, shedding light on allegations of legal violations by federal agents. An anonymous whistleblower, backed by Democracy Defenders Fund, reported potential breaches of state laws. The whistleblower’s account reached Democratic U.S. Senator Alex Padilla of California, who disclosed the report along with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
The whistleblower revealed that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiated a massive personnel surge termed the Unlawful Voter Initiative. Agents combed through voter rolls, using personally identifiable information (PII) on state websites to trace voter histories. The report suggests that accessing voters’ records might involve falsifying attestations of voter authorization, violating state laws like those in Virginia which demand such attestations.
The Whistleblower has reason to believe that, with the knowledge and at the direction of leadership at headquarters, the Unlawful Voter Initiative has potentially already committed thousands of violations of state law in an effort to improperly access individuals’ voter records.
DHS has declined to comment on these allegations. Guidance provided by the Office of Chief Counsel at DHS’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services indicated agents may utilize these state resources for investigative purposes. The New York Times initially reported the initiative and potential state law violations earlier in the month.
The whistleblower report also outlines training materials for the Unlawful Voter Initiative. It noted inconsistencies in the voter data set used by agents. Each officer had a quota, reviewing a minimum of five subjects per hour and 40 subjects daily. This left only 12 minutes per subject to determine citizenship status or unlawful voter suspicion.
As the Trump administration intensifies efforts across federal agencies to identify and prosecute non-citizens on voter rolls, these allegations gain significance with the approach of November’s Election Day. Previous audits have shown that cases of noncitizen voting are infrequent.
Senator Padilla and Senator Schumer emphasized the risk of using unreliable DHS data to label voters as ‘unlawful.’ Such actions could disenfranchise eligible voters and disrupt election processes at state and local levels. They urged Secretary Mullin and USCIS Director Joseph Edlow to pause the initiative, underscoring the importance of reliable data and thorough investigations to safeguard Americans’ voting rights and election administration.