A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to stop sending agents to question people about their voting when those people are likely U.S. citizens. The order covers nine states and lasts until polls close on Election Day, Nov. 3 13.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of the Northern District of California issued the preliminary injunction late Wednesday, Oct. 21. A preliminary injunction is a temporary court order that stays in place while a case goes on 13. The order covers California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin 1.
The judge put her order on hold until 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, to give the Trump administration time to appeal 23. As of this writing, none of the reports reviewed for this story said whether the government had filed an appeal.
What the judge blocked
The order bars DHS from "elections-related field operations and field interviews" involving people that officials "know, suspect, or should reasonably know or suspect are U.S. citizens" 3. It also bars DHS from carrying out operations based only on its voter-matching data, without further investigation 4.
The judge did not stop all investigations into voting by noncitizens. She wrote that "Plaintiffs do not claim, nor does the Court find, that it is unlawful for federal officials to undertake investigations" of that kind. She said the plaintiffs instead want to stop DHS from investigating U.S. citizens 3.
She found the program likely violates the Voting Rights Act, the 1965 civil rights law. It bars anyone from intimidating, threatening or coercing voters or the people who help others vote 32.
The fear is objectively reasonable, and compounded by Defendants' use of data that is widely known to inadvertently include U.S. citizens, leaves citizens afraid that their name will be wrongly included in the hundreds of thousands identified for investigation
Bad lists, 12-minute reviews
Much of the ruling turned on the data. DHS built its target lists from state voter rolls, commercial voter files and lists of 48.2 million voters that the judge said had "questionable provenance" 2. She called the initial target list "voluminous and unreliable" 10.
During the surge, the judge wrote, DHS staff had to complete at least 40 reviews each. They had no more than 12 minutes to clear a person from the target list using commercial databases 2. She also noted that no federal database definitively records the citizenship status of U.S. residents 2.
According to the ruling, DHS acknowledged that similar names, incomplete records and outdated citizenship information could cause errors 10. The judge also cited the use of "unknown artificial intelligence tools" in the data 8.
The operation had a written plan. An Aug. 31 memo from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the investigative arm of DHS, described a "surge initiative" that began Sept. 1 and included field interviews 1. Six of the nine states were named as September targets 1. HSI offices also posted photos and videos online of agents approaching homes 35.
Who sued, and what they said
The plaintiffs are the California Nurses Association, National Nurses United, the Voto Latino Foundation, Santa Clara County, and the City and County of San Francisco 1. They filed suit on Sept. 21. Protect Democracy and the National Immigration Law Center are among their lawyers 4.
The judge wrote that the agency's threats had already caused nurses' union members to stop taking part in election work "because they reasonably fear being subjected to physical, legal, or reputational harm" 6.
Today, the courts affirmed a vital principle of our democracy: Voting is a fundamental right that citizens – whether born here or naturalized – should be able to exercise without armed government agents harassing them.
Benjamin Farley of the National Immigration Law Center called the decision "a clear rebuke of the government's efforts to scare voters away from the polls this November" 7.
Democrats raised the alarm about this effort weeks ago. On Sept. 2, a separate coalition led by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) sued DHS, saying it was attacking naturalized citizens' right to vote 9. Xavier Becerra, a Democratic candidate for California governor and co-counsel in that case, said this at the announcement 9:
What the Trump administration is telling us is that they believe that they can intimidate U.S. citizen voters, and more specifically they can intimidate them because they are naturalized U.S. citizens
The administration's response
In a statement on Thursday, DHS said it is "laser focused on identifying, prosecuting, and removing aliens who vote and dilute the votes of U.S. citizens" 3. It added that it has "no plans to question or investigate people we believe to be U.S. citizens" 3.
In court, Justice Department lawyers argued that "Enjoining the government from even investigating such criminal violations would damage the public interest, not serve it" 1. Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters the department aims to make sure only eligible voters cast ballots 2.
The Justice Department says 156 people have been charged with voting-fraud offenses since the Trump administration took office 3. This week it charged 28 green card holders in California with election offenses 5. Studies have shown that voting by noncitizens rarely happens 7.
Why it matters
That matters because the people most at risk of a wrongful knock are citizens whose records don't line up neatly: naturalized Americans, people who changed their names at marriage, and families with members of mixed immigration status. A worker with 12 minutes and a commercial database can't reliably tell them apart 2.
The pattern is also clear. The program reached its peak just as early voting began, in states with close races 81. The judge said the timing and the armed visits create a reasonable fear among the volunteers who register, educate and drive voters 6.
The Record
- An internal Homeland Security Investigations memo describes a "surge initiative," starting Sept. 1, that includes field interviews 1.
- A coalition led by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) sues DHS, saying it is attacking naturalized citizens' right to vote 9.
- Nurses' unions, Voto Latino, San Francisco and Santa Clara County file suit under the Voting Rights Act 4.
- Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issues a preliminary injunction covering nine states through Election Day 13.
- The judge's hold on her order is set to expire at 5 p.m., the window for the administration to appeal 3.
Sources
- CT Mirror / Stateline, “Judge blocks DHS from conducting election-related sweeps in 9 states” (2026-10-22). ctmirror.org/2026/10/22/judge-blocks-dhs-from-conducting-ele
- Maryland Daily Record, “Judge restricts Homeland Security investigations into noncitizen voting” (2026-10-22). thedailyrecord.com/2026/10/22/judge-limits-dhs-noncitizen-vo
- CBS News, “Judge rules against DHS's policy of knocking on doors to track down possible noncitizen voters” (2026-10-22). cbsnews.com/news/judge-dhs-noncitizen-voters-ruling/
- Protect Democracy, “Court limits DHS's armed home visits questioning voter eligibility” (2026-10-22). protectdemocracy.org/work/court-limits-dhs-armed-home-visits
- KQED, “Judge Blocks DHS From Sending Armed Agents to Question Voters in Search for Noncitizens” (2026-10-22). kqed.org/news/12105068/judge-blocks-dhs-from-sending-armed-a
- Law&Crime (via Yahoo News), “Federal judge blocks Trump admin from deploying armed agents to interrogate voters in 9 states before midterms” (2026-10-22). yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/federal-judge-blocks-trump-
- Al Jazeera / AP, “US judge blocks federal operations seeking to identify non-citizen voters” (2026-10-22). aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/22/us-judge-blocks-federal-operat
- Scripps News / NewsChannel 5, “Judge reins in armed ICE agents investigating voter fraud” (2026-10-22). newschannel5.com/investigations/ice-inc/judge-reins-in-armed
- ABC7 Los Angeles, “CA groups sue Homeland Security over alleged attacks on naturalized citizens' right to vote” (2026-09-02). abc7.com/post/california-groups-file-lawsuit-department-home
- The National News Desk (ABC News 4), “Judge curbs DHS hunt for noncitizen voters in 9 states, citing flawed data” (2026-10-22). abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/jfederal-judge-curbs-dhs-home
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