Noncitizen Voting Cases Yield 160 Arrests Amidst Broader Election Integrity Effort

An extensive, administration-wide effort to identify and prosecute noncitizens unlawfully registered to vote has resulted in approximately 1,600 voter fraud cases, leading to 160 arrests, according to Homeland Security Investigations.

Matthew Millhollin, a senior official with Homeland Security Investigations, shared these figures during a press briefing Tuesday. The data comes six weeks before Election Day and offers an update on an initiative that has directed federal resources and hundreds of employees toward investigating potential election foul play, at the direction of President Donald Trump.

The numbers fall significantly short of previous estimates from the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security, which suggested hundreds of thousands of noncitizens might be on voter rolls. These cases represent a small fraction of the country's more than 211 million active registered voters. Election law experts and former election officials maintain that voter fraud, including by noncitizens, is uncommon.

"They have tried to manufacture evidence of widespread noncitizen voting, and every time they do, their numbers are incredibly small, even when they’re overstated," said David Becker, who leads the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research and is a former U.S. Justice Department attorney. "They confirm what we’ve known for years, which is that states have been doing an extraordinarily good job of keeping noncitizens off their voter lists."

Millhollin presented the arrest data alongside updates from the Justice Department and the U.S. Postal Service regarding charges against a Utah postal worker accused of discarding mail-in ballots. During the same briefing, Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter stated that the Justice Department had charged 70 individuals since the administration began with offenses related to unlawful voting and registration.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department clarified that the DOJ's figure pertains to formally charged defendants, while HSI's 160 arrests stem from voter fraud leads and may result in charges for related offenses, such as false claims to citizenship, rather than the voting statute itself. These federal actions span the period from January 2025 to September 2026.

Ahead of the November midterm elections, President Trump has intensified efforts to address noncitizen voting, a practice he has described as widespread. However, research consistently indicates that such instances are rare.

Trump has initiated executive orders aimed at the issue, though they face legal challenges. He has also advocated for states to utilize a federal voter database, a move blocked by a federal judge due to privacy concerns, and has sought congressional action on a documentary proof of citizenship bill.

In August, the Department of Homeland Security redirected some U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staff to conduct manual investigations of state voter rolls, a shift prompted by a whistleblower's report. The whistleblower raised concerns that this effort might involve federal employees misrepresenting themselves on state voter lookup tools, potentially violating state laws, and could rely on unreliable data that might erroneously implicate U.S. citizens.

In Texas, state election officials investigated registered voters flagged as noncitizens by the federal voter database before a judge halted its use. Out of 2,724 flagged voters, 117 cases were referred to the Texas attorney general's office. By mid-September, seven individuals in Texas were charged with illegally voting or falsely claiming citizenship. Texas has approximately 18 million registered voters.

Becker noted that such cases typically result in small numbers, reinforcing the rarity of noncitizen voting. "No system is perfect," he said, adding that he was unaware of any election outcome being altered by noncitizen votes.

McCotter, however, asserted that even isolated cases of fraud can have significant implications. "The right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted is vital to determining the rightful winner of an election," he stated. "But the actions of even one malicious actor on the ground can fatally undercut that security."

Kathy Boockvar, former Secretary of State of Pennsylvania and now head of a nonpartisan election security firm, commented on the impact of unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud. "Lots of people just believe what they hear, then reach out to election officials, and these days don't have any qualms about threatening them," Boockvar said. "There is a direct, constant effect here that leads to the fueling of antagonism against election officials."