Federal Agents Head to California and Nevada as DHS Opens Noncitizen Voting Probe

The Department of Homeland Security is sending Homeland Security Investigations agents into California and Nevada this week as part of a nine-state “coordinated criminal voter fraud surge” aimed at noncitizens who registered or voted, according to an exclusive report by CNN.

Internal federal guidance reviewed by multiple outlets says HSI offices in Washington, Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York, and Connecticut will pursue investigative leads, conduct field interviews, and support prosecutions from early September through mid-October. Officials say the work includes cases involving people believed to be noncitizens who registered or cast ballots. 

A DHS spokesperson told reporters HSI “is actively rooting out and investigating election fraud wherever it can be found.” The statement added: “We have repeatedly demonstrated that illegal aliens can and do vote in our elections. Under President Trump, HSI is committed to restoring integrity to our election systems and ensuring that American citizens and only American citizens are electing American leaders.” 

The agency said it has identified more than 24,000 potential cases of noncitizens on state voter rolls since April 2025. 

This week’s surge follows letters Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent in mid-July to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Nevada Secretary of State Francisco “Cisco” Aguilar. Mullin said a preliminary review of publicly available voter records against federal immigration data found “as many as” 190,832 noncitizens registered in California and 15,903 in Nevada. He also listed 81,336 California matches and 8,576 Nevada matches on name, date of birth, address, and Social Security number. 

“Election security is national security,” Mullin said in the official DHS release. “Only Americans should be electing American leaders.” He asked the secretaries to work with DHS on identity verification and warned that allowing even one noncitizen to vote cancels a citizen’s vote. 

Weber’s office called the California figure “fallacious” and “unsubstantiated.” In her written reply she told Mullin she had “serious doubts about the reliability of your data and accuracy of your claims” and noted the letter provided “no detail whatsoever” her office could use to evaluate the allegations. California has refused to turn over its full statewide voter file; a federal judge dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit seeking the records earlier this year. Weber’s office has said the state has not sent DHS the unredacted roll. 

Secretary Aguilar was equally blunt. “These numbers are wildly speculative at best and the Department of Homeland Security hasn’t shared anything that backs it up,” he said. In a July 29 letter he asked how DHS matched Social Security numbers if it did not receive Nevada’s confidential voter file, and he warned against wrongly labeling naturalized citizens. He said his office remains open to “good faith collaboration” once DHS produces the underlying data.

In an August 13 meeting with Nevada election officials, DHS acknowledged it had manually confirmed only 185 noncitizens after first advertising 15,903 as the “ceiling.” Officials said more than 14,000 names still needed review, including 6,218 labeled “higher confidence” matches that had not been fully checked. Some of those, they conceded, could be naturalized citizens whose immigration records had not been updated. 

Aguilar’s office said it would not risk disenfranchising eligible voters “without the highest confidence of their ineligibility.” Nevada officials have repeatedly noted that applicants must affirm citizenship under penalty of perjury and that the state’s automatic voter-registration process at the DMV still requires county verification.

While Sacramento fights over the full list, individual cases continue. On Aug. 28 federal prosecutors charged Darwin Jonathan Rivera Flores, a 30-year-old Honduran lawful permanent resident in Winnetka, with making a false claim to U.S. citizenship and fraudulent voter registration. HSI agents found an online registration under his name dated Nov. 4, 2025. He had not voted, according to the complaint, but had intended to vote in the upcoming midterm elections.

Los Angeles federal prosecutors have also said they have multiple election-fraud investigations open with the FBI, including a comprehensive audit of California’s voter rolls coordinated with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

California and Nevada share more than a border. Both are run by Democratic secretaries of state who have spent 2026 fighting federal demands for voter-file access by claiming data privacy. Yet, the data they are shielding is data that was either given by the federal government to the registrant (social security number) or in possession of the federal government. 

Despite the clash between democratic secretaries of state and the Trump administration, DHS says the works is straightforward: compare public rolls to immigration records, interview the people who match, and prosecute those who broke the law.

Despite Aguliar’s claim that applicants must affirm citizenship when registering to vote, an honor system is not the way to guarantee safe, secure, and valid elections as proven by the arrest of Darwin Jonathan Rivera Flores, who registered to vote as Darwin Rivera.