<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A whistleblower claimed that a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) effort to investigate voter fraud violated state laws, a charge that the agency denies.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">On September 12, 2026, Senate Democrats announced the release of a whistleblower complaint regarding a DHS initiative to investigate voter fraud. According to the whistleblower, DHS directed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers to violate state laws as part of its "Unlawful Voter Initiative," which aims to gather evidence about voter fraud.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The complaint, as stated by Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), alleges that DHS forced its agents to use "illegal procedures and questionable data to identify purported 'unlawful voters,' and create federal law enforcement records against them, including naturalized U.S. citizens."</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Among the alleged illegal procedures was a directive to use personal information acquired from DHS data to misrepresent themselves on state voter registration websites, falsely claiming that they were either a voter or authorized to access sensitive data.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Donald Trump and his Administration are obsessed with election conspiracy theories and operate under the wrong assumption that they are above the law — they are not,” Padilla said. “The whistleblower’s disclosure outlines allegations of unlawful and unethical conduct that includes potentially thousands of violations of state law and the use of questionable data, which they refer to as 'supplemental magic' to falsely flag naturalized U.S. citizens as ineligible voters in federal law enforcement records.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In response to an inquiry from the Washington Examiner, a DHS spokesperson denied the allegations. They stated, “The only magic being performed here is the media conjuring controversy out of commonplace law enforcement.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The spokesperson added, “Far from being rushed or untrained, these investigative efforts are conducted diligently and professionally. Identification and investigation of aliens who vote in our elections provides an essential guarantee in the authenticity of our election results. There is no quota on criminality. DHS will pursue each and every illegal voter to the fullest extent of the law.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Regarding the data compilation, the agency stated that it accessed publicly available data from state voter rolls and cross-referenced it with known aliens in their systems.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">DHS pointed to some successful outcomes from the voter fraud investigation, including the arrest of Mahady Sacko, an illegal immigrant who had voted in seven federal elections since 2008, including the 2024 elections.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The 30-page whistleblower complaint was released by Padilla and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on September 12, 2026.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“The Department of Homeland Security is sending hundreds of officers who should be focused on our security on a wild goose chase to prove Trump’s long-debunked election conspiracy theories — and DHS is telling officers to lie to do it,” Schumer said in a statement.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“These allegations are especially alarming because they come just weeks before the November 2026 midterm elections. The Administration is publicly asserting, without evidence, that large numbers of noncitizens are unlawfully registered to vote and deploying federal law enforcement resources to investigate those claims,” a letter from Democratic senators stated, claiming that the faulty data could disenfranchise eligible voters and violate voting rights.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Padilla and Schumer demanded that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and USCIS Director Joseph Edlow halt the voter fraud investigation and explain their activities to Congress.</p>