DHS Uncovers Thousands of Potential Non-Citizen Voters, But Systemic Obstacles Hinder Investigations
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The Department of Homeland Security has referred about 24,000 potential non-citizen voter records for investigation, but bureaucratic hurdles and political resistance have limited the number of substantive inquiries, raising concerns about election integrity.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit reports it has received more than 24,000 leads from the SAVE database, identifying individuals as possible non-U.S. citizens on voter rolls since April 2025. These leads, which could point to serious vulnerabilities in the nation’s electoral system, have been forwarded for further review. Yet, former HSI officials familiar with the effort, speaking anonymously, note that many cases are dismissed as 'false positives,' such as 'derived citizens' who gained citizenship through their parents, raising questions about the thoroughness of the vetting process.
Despite these alarming numbers, state election officials in Pennsylvania and Connecticut claim they have not been contacted by DHS regarding voter-fraud investigations, nor have they received subpoenas. According to a ProPublica analysis of Justice Department data, only 41 alleged non-citizen voters faced charges between January 2025 and May 2026—a figure dwarfed by the more than 150 million voters in the 2024 presidential election and 112 million in the 2022 midterms. This low number of prosecutions may reflect a lack of political will to pursue these cases rather than an absence of fraud.
A DHS spokesperson explained that the SAVE system, originally designed for immigration benefit determinations, is now being used to screen voter registration lists. The current number of identified cases is much lower than the over 250,000 'potential' non-citizens previously cited by former officials, possibly due to increased pressure from advocacy groups and bureaucratic reluctance to address the issue head-on.
'The end goal with this, as with every single thing the administration is doing, is to undermine the integrity of the upcoming elections,' said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, echoing concerns about the politicization of election security.
'The administration intends to sow doubt about the integrity of the system that we know is very secure and transparent,' Becker added, dismissing legitimate concerns about vulnerabilities in the system.
Officials emphasize that, so far, very few investigations have led to criminal charges, and HSI has not previously been tasked with such a large-scale voter-fraud sweep. This lack of aggressive enforcement leaves the door open for continued abuse of the electoral process by non-citizens.