Background
The Trump administration has sought an unprecedented level of control over elections in advance of the midterms; in particular, they have been fixated on finding alleged non-citizens that are registered to vote, despite it being an incredibly rare, and as a result, essentially a non-issue.
In pursuit of this, the administration has been seeking access to sensitive data from state and county officials: President Trump has issued two executive orders that seek to require states share voter data with federal agencies, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) has sued 30 states and D.C. for copies of unredacted voter rolls.
Recently, even Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has become involved in these efforts—ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has required employees to review all voter fraud cases involving immigrants before they became naturalized citizens, a significant use of law enforcement resources far beyond the scope of HSI’s typical work.
Federal efforts to control and investigate elections are highly concerning, and attempts to gain access to sensitive, private voter data present questions about use of government resources to pursue conspiracies and potentially purge eligible voters from the rolls ahead of the midterm elections. Furthermore, that the Trump administration has tried to force states and counties to produce this information also raises serious concerns about federal officials using the power of their office to pressure election officials into complying with their agenda.
What We Sought
Democracy Forward is investigating federal interference in elections in the lead up to the midterms in November. To date, we have sent public records requests to more than fifty state and county election offices across the country, seeking information on how federal officials are communicating with local officials about elections and demanding voter information.
What We Received
Democracy Forward has uncovered new records illustrating the scope of ICE investigations into alleged noncitizens on the voter rolls.
We obtained documents from the Texas Secretary of State’s Office showing that in April 2026, an ICE HSI criminal analyst sent questions to the office on how to obtain voter information, including “dates and methods of [voter] registration” and voter history. Troublingly, ICE seems to be considering using subpoenas to obtain this data according to the list of questions they sent to Texas.
Records we obtained from Webb County, Texas, revealed more information on ICE’s efforts — in May 2026, an ICE HSI official emailed a county official asking for voter data for seven people. Webb County officials provided these records to ICE, including individuals’ voting history and voter registration applications.
We also uncovered an exchange in Forsyth County, North Carolina, between ICE and county election officials. In November 2026, an ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) official emailed county officials asking for voter registration applications and voting histories for two people. Forsyth County later provided the records to ICE.
Our records also show that Texas Secretary of State General Counsel Adam Bitter met with Heather Honey in March 2026. Honey is an election integrity activist who distorted voter data in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election; she currently works for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Honey’s meeting with Texas underscores the Trump administration’s involvement in state matters, and raises serious concerns about how it will impact the upcoming election and eligible voters.
These records show an escalation of the Trump administration’s efforts to interfere in state election administration and obtain voter data in advance of the midterm elections. That ICE is the agency seeking this information is all the more notable, as ICE has no role in investigating elections.
