Internal records released on October 7, 2026 by Democracy Forward, 166 pages obtained through a public-records lawsuit, show how Homeland Security Investigations, ICE's investigative arm, has run its search for noncitizen voters, CNN reported. A June 1 HSI report said investigators had ingested 50.6 million records from a Justice Department dataset and another 48.4 million records that Heather Honey, a senior counselor to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, had obtained through what the report called “independent sources of information,” which it does not identify. The figures are counts of records, not of distinct voters.
The operation looked beyond individual voters. An internal comparison said HSI was adopting a “network-based investigative approach, prioritizing organization and facilitation analysis over individual leads,” and investigators reviewed dozens of nonprofits and voter-registration organizations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and other states. A June report said officials were exploring whether to use undercover agents to investigate organizations suspected of helping noncitizens register; the records show the idea was considered, not that it was carried out. ICE guidance held that noncitizens who voted could be deported and that “There is no requirement that the alien have knowledge that he or she has illegally voted, and no conviction is required.” By late May, HSI had opened 418 voter-fraud cases and made 64 administrative arrests; 318 of the cases had not been referred for prosecution.
Several documents referenced plans to load state voter-roll data into ELITE, a Palantir tool ICE uses for immigration enforcement; a July report said data from six states was “pending Palantir entry into ELITE.” Palantir told CNN voter roll data “has never been integrated into ELITE,” and Democracy Docket corrected an earlier report that the data had been shared. DHS said it has been transparent about analyzing “publicly available voter files” and that DHS and DOJ “are laser focused on prosecuting and removing aliens who vote and preventing the dilution of the votes of US citizens.” Democracy Forward's board is chaired by Marc Elias, the founder of Democracy Docket (see DHS Launched a Nine-State Voter Fraud Surge With Field Interviews as Early Voting Opened and The Administration Turned an Immigration Database Into a Voter Citizenship Checker. A Judge Vacated It, and the Supreme Court Put It Back.).