The federal government’s campaign to identify noncitizen voters has been a topic of intense debate and scrutiny. Since President Donald Trump‘s return to the White House, the administration has launched a series of initiatives to address what it claims is rampant illegal voting. The Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has been at the forefront of this effort, using its extensive resources and legal authority to search for noncitizen voters on state voter rolls.
Despite the administration’s claims of widespread voter fraud, the results of HSI’s investigations have been underwhelming. According to an investigation by ProPublica the effort has produced only a few dozen noncitizen voter prosecutions nationwide, with even fewer convictions. This has raised questions about the effectiveness and legality of the administration’s approach.
HSI’s Role in the Election Fraud Investigation
The involvement of HSI in the hunt for election fraud dates back to summer 2026. The agency, which was established to combat drug cartels, terrorism, and other cross-border criminal enterprises, was tasked with leading the campaign to find election fraud cases in the United States. HSI’s powerful databases and tools were used to search public voter rolls for noncitizens, despite warnings from career staffers at the Justice Department that this could violate federal privacy laws.
According to interviews and internal emails reviewed by ProPublica, HSI’s efforts have been met with skepticism and criticism from within the agency. Career staffers warned that transferring voter rolls to HSI for criminal investigation might not be legal. Longtime HSI insiders cautioned that using the agency’s databases and tools to search these lists would yield mismatches and wildly inflated results.
The Minnesota Case Study
In late March, Joe Teirab, the second-in-command at Minnesota’s U.S. attorney’s office, received an urgent email from Washington. The federal government was scrambling to find criminal cases to back up President Trump‘s claims that illegal voting by noncitizens was tipping the scales in American elections. Agents from HSI had been dispatched to work leads across the country, including hundreds in Minnesota.
Teirab, a former Marine and a Harvard Law graduate, responded with a blunt reality check. After subpoenaing records on about 130 people, only one had been referred for prosecution. Agents had deluged local election offices with calls and demands for voting histories, demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of illegal voting investigations. Teirab described the HSI task force as disjointed and disorganized, with the entire process being dysfunctional.
The White House’s Response
The White House has defended the administration’s efforts to identify noncitizen voters, insisting that the campaign is producing meaningful results. Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, stated that President Trump is committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections. She emphasized that noncitizens voting is a crime and that anyone breaking the law will be held accountable.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed that HSI had cross-referenced publicly available data from state voter rolls with information on known illegal aliens in its systems. The spokesperson described this initiative as an easy step to secure elections. However, the agency did not answer questions about why so few prosecutions have resulted from HSI’s work.
The Broader Context
Critics of the administration’s hunt for noncitizen voters argue that it aligns with Trump’s attempts to seek more federal control over elections while stoking doubt and fear about the voting process. Since taking back the Oval Office, Trump has tried to impose new restrictions on voter registration, mail-in ballots, and voting machines, though judges have shut down most of these efforts.
Former officials at DHS and the Justice Department have questioned the propriety of aiming HSI’s muscle and technology at individual cases of illegal voting. Steve Bunnell, a former DHS general counsel and senior intelligence adviser, compared the use of HSI’s resources to going after a cleaning lady who has been working in the United States for 20 years, rather than a major criminal enterprise like Pablo Escobar.
The Future of HSI’s Election Fraud Investigations
The administration’s efforts to identify noncitizen voters are likely to continue, despite the meager results so far. The White House has made it clear that ensuring the integrity of the election system is a top priority. However, the controversy surrounding HSI’s involvement in these investigations is likely to persist, as critics continue to question the effectiveness and legality of the administration’s approach.
As the debate over election fraud and noncitizen voting continues, one thing is clear: the federal government’s campaign to address these issues is far from over. The results of HSI’s investigations, and the broader implications for the election system, will continue to be a topic of intense scrutiny and debate.
