A federal judge ruled Wednesday night that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s practice of knocking on doors and asking people about their immigration status — and whether they voted in recent elections — likely violated the Voting Rights Act.
The judgment targeted an operation documented by a CBS News investigation earlier Wednesday. Homeland Security Investigations has released photos and videos of agents approaching homes in several states. The Trump administration says the practice is part of an effort to suppress non-citizen voting, but critics say it could intimidate legal voters.
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin ordered federal immigration authorities to stop conducting “election-related field operations and field interviews” in nine states, including California and New York, if those operations are likely to involve people who government officials “know, suspect, or reasonably should know or suspect are U.S. citizens.”
His order will remain in effect until polls close on Election Day. She suspended the decision until 5 p.m. Friday, which will give the government the opportunity to appeal.
Martinez-Olguin sided with groups that filed lawsuits following the wave of investigations into non-citizen voting, including the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United. She said the policy likely ran afoul of a section of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits “intimidating, threatening, or coercing” those who help people vote or engage in voter mobilization efforts.
“Plaintiffs do not claim, nor does the Court conclude, that it is unlawful for federal officials to undertake investigations into illegal voting in federal elections,” the judge wrote. “Rather, Plaintiffs seek to prevent DHS from continuing to investigate U.S. citizens, who have the legal right to vote, in a manner that intimidates and threatens the participation of CNA/NNU members who incite or assist others to vote.”
Martinez-Olguin also highlighted the “high probability of error” in the government’s process of developing a list of potential targets, which includes data from government agencies and commercially available data.
Protect Democracy, one of the groups that sued over the policy, celebrated the decision.
“It was clear from the start that DHS built its lists on bad data, never checked the frequency of errors, and recklessly sent agents to people’s homes weeks before the election,” Beau Tremitiere, an attorney at Protect Democracy, said in a statement to CBS News. “Today’s decision should remind us that American citizens hold the ultimate power in our democracy, not the government, no matter what the administration says.”
CBS News has contacted DHS for comment.
President Trump has prioritized combating voter fraud during his second term, even though there is little evidence to support his claims of widespread non-citizen voting. According to the Justice Department, only 156 people have been charged with election fraud since the start of the Trump administration.
The Justice Department announced earlier this week that it had arrested several dozen green card holders in California, accused of illegally registering to vote in the US federal elections.
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