Judge Blocks DHS From Sending Armed Agents to Question Voters in Search for Noncitizens
A federal judge in Oakland has temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from sending armed agents to interrogate registered voters it suspects are noncitizens.
In the weeks leading up to the Nov. 3 midterm election, DHS and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have surged field investigations in nine states, including California, sending agents to the homes of people who the agency said may have registered illegally.
Voter and immigrant rights advocates — in a coalition joined by the city and county of San Francisco and Santa Clara County — sued to block the practice, arguing that interrogations by armed agents could intimidate eligible voters ahead of the midterm election.
In a preliminary injunction issued late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinéz-Olguín ruled that the practice violates the federal Voting Rights Act and questioned the data that the federal government used to identify those it believes are ineligible to vote.
“At issue here is the reliance on admittedly flawed and incomplete data to create a list of individuals for HSI to interview in the months leading up to an election,” Martinéz-Olguín wrote in her ruling. “Including the rollout of a social media campaign publishing photos and videos of individuals being arrested.”
The U.S. Department of Justice relied on the same data to identify 28 noncitizens in California and charge them with election offenses on Monday, in an escalation of tensions over the state’s voting process. The individuals are all lawful permanent residents, otherwise referred to as green card holders, according to the department.
Last week, the U.S. government sued California and Los Angeles County over their voter rolls, two days after it demanded the state provide proof of citizenship for around 20,000 registered voters it believes may be noncitizens.
The DOJ asked a court to block California election officials from counting their ballots. The state has asked the Justice Department for information about how it determined the registrants in question were likely ineligible, but state officials said they have not received it.
Meanwhile, this week’s ruling temporarily blocks DHS in its latest effort to root out alleged voter fraud, which the department documented in a recent social media campaign.
“HSI in Northern California will investigate any allegations of noncitizen voting and is committed to ensuring the enforcement of federal election law,” HSI NorCal wrote in a social media post last month. The post is accompanied by photos of armed agents approaching what appear to be front doors at private residences.
Martinéz-Olguín’s ruling blocks the practice starting Friday through Election Day. The judge also said, “The federal government has a vested interest in free elections untainted by the threat that officers will dissuade voter engagement programs from conducting their core civic functions.”
It’s a win for advocacy groups including the California Nurses Association and the Voto Latino Foundation, both plaintiffs in the case.
“Today, the courts affirmed a vital principle of our democracy: Voting is a fundamental right that citizens — whether born here or naturalized — should be able to exercise without armed government agents harassing them,” Beau Tremitiere, an attorney with the Protect Democracy Project who argued on behalf of plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement.