NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration's initiative to identify and prosecute noncitizens on state voter rolls has resulted in approximately 1,600 voter fraud cases leading to 160 arrests, according to Matthew Millhollin, a senior official with Homeland Security Investigations, during a press briefing on September 23, 2026. This update comes six weeks before the midterm elections and highlights the administration's allocation of federal resources to investigate potential election fraud at the direction of President Donald Trump.
The reported arrests are significantly lower than the hundreds of thousands of noncitizen voters that Trump and the Department of Homeland Security have previously claimed exist. This figure represents a small fraction of the more than 211 million active registered voters in the United States, reinforcing the view of former election officials and experts that voter fraud, including that by noncitizens, is uncommon.
David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department attorney and head of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research, stated, "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. 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."
During the same briefing, the Justice Department announced charges against a Utah postal worker for discarding over 300 mail ballots during the state's June primary. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter noted that since the beginning of the administration, 70 individuals have been charged with unlawful voting and registration offenses.
The DOJ's figures reflect formal charges related to unlawful voting, while HSI's 160 arrests stem from investigations into voter fraud, often resulting in charges for related offenses such as false claims to citizenship. The federal actions cover the period from January 2025 to September 2026.
Ahead of the upcoming midterms, Trump has implemented measures to address noncitizen voting, which he claims is widespread. He has signed two executive orders related to elections, both facing legal challenges, and has urged states to utilize a federal voter database that has been blocked for privacy violations. Additionally, in August, DHS directed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staff to conduct manual investigations of state voter rolls, as reported by a federal whistleblower.
In Texas, state election officials investigated registered voters flagged as noncitizens by the federal database before its use was halted. Out of 2,724 registered voters reviewed, 117 cases were referred for investigation, resulting in seven charges for illegal voting or false claims of citizenship. Texas has approximately 18 million registered voters.
Becker emphasized that the actual instances of noncitizen voting are consistently low, stating, "No system is perfect," and he was not aware of any election outcome being altered by noncitizen voting. McCotter argued that even a small number of fraud cases can undermine election integrity, stating, "The right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted is vital to determining the rightful winner of an election."
Kathy Boockvar, the former Democratic secretary of state of Pennsylvania, noted the negative impact of exaggerated claims of voter fraud on election officials, saying, "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."