California alone may have more than 35,000 non-citizens registered to vote, according to preliminary findings from the Department of Homeland Security, as the Trump administration escalates pressure on states to purge their voter rolls before the November midterms.
The staggering figures are part of a broader federal review that has uncovered tens of thousands of illegally registered voters across the country, with hundreds confirmed to have cast ballots in past elections. Dozens are now facing prosecution.
DHS has obtained voter registration data from at least 47 states under what the administration calls the “Unlawful Voter Initiative,” Reuters reported. But for some officials, the cleanup isn’t moving fast enough. An internal email from September 1, obtained by the wire service, shows one DHS official threatening to escalate the matter directly to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles if progress stalled.
“The real story here is after decades of the media denying that non-citizens register and vote in our elections, they are finally being forced to admit after a flurry of recent arrests nationwide that it does happen,” said White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis.
The problem traces back decades. According to Reuters, as many as 30,000 non-citizens have been added to voter rolls since 2000 due to software glitches and automatic registration systems that enroll illegal aliens when they apply for state driver’s licenses.
Democratic-led states are now being forced to confront the issue head-on.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, acknowledged on July 21 that 6,600 non-citizens were discovered on Garden State voter rolls. Roughly 400 of them illegally cast ballots between June 2023 and June 2024. New York may have more than 10,000 non-citizens registered to vote, according to Project Civica, a non-partisan government accountability organization.
Republicans in Congress passed the SAVE America Act, designed to close the automatic registration loophole that has allowed non-citizens to end up on voter rolls through DMVs and welfare offices. Senate Democrats blocked it.
“Democrats must stop refusing to pass the SAVE America Act, commonsense legislation that ensures Americans, and Americans only, decide our elections,” Bis added.
Trump has long maintained that voter fraud played a role in his 2020 election loss. In a July speech at the White House, he accused China of illegally obtaining voter information on 220 million Americans and engaging in “other election-related activities to undermine my first administration and our 2020 campaign.”
