A federal judge on Oct. 21 granted a preliminary injunction barring Department of Homeland Security (DHS) election-related field operations and interviews involving people federal officials “know, suspect or should reasonably know or suspect are U.S. citizens.”
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín’s order covers California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin—the nine states targeted by a DHS enforcement surge addressing noncitizen voting.
The judge, who serves in the Northern District of California, found that nursing unions were likely to succeed on their claim that federal enforcement actions violated the Voting Rights Act’s protections against intimidation involving voter assistance and mobilization. She stayed the order until 5 p.m. Oct. 23, with the restrictions extending through Election Day, Nov. 3.
The California Nurses Association, National Nurses United, the City and County of San Francisco, Santa Clara County, and Voto Latino Foundation sought a preliminary injunction and a stay under the Administrative Procedure Act.
The DOJ didn’t respond to an email seeking comment on the ruling by publication time.
In the ruling, the judge said federal officers had insufficient time to review people suspected of illegally voting as noncitizens.
“During the Surge, the agents were ordered to complete a minimum of 40 suspected subject reviews, which requires officers to take no more than twelve minutes to eliminate a person from the target list using the commercial databases,” the judge wrote. The time limitations implemented during the Surge “further exacerbate the risk of error,” she said.
The judge questioned the reliability of the list of people suspected of unlawful voter registration or voting, saying, “Even under the best conditions, there is a high likelihood of error in review because there is no federal database containing citizenship status of U.S. residents.”
Martinez-Olguin said the issue was “the reliance on admittedly flawed and incomplete data to create a list of individuals for [Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)] to interview in the months leading up to an election.”
She said there was an “objectively reasonable fear” that law enforcement practices could intimidate U.S. citizens participating in voter mobilization efforts.
In a separate lawsuit filed Oct. 15, the Justice Department asked a federal court to require California to set aside ballots returned by more than 20,000 registered voters whom federal investigators identified as “likely noncitizens,” pending verification of their citizenship.
Prosecutors said that all registered California voters are mailed a vote-by-mail ballot without a notification that noncitizens are prohibited from voting in federal elections.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said federal officials gave California 48 hours to review the names and identify any U.S. citizens on the list. Prosecutors said that the state refused to conduct the review, and they sought an emergency order preventing the ballots from being counted until citizenship could be confirmed.
HSI said it analyzed publicly available voter registration records to identify potential noncitizens registered to vote.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized the lawsuit, and accused President Donald Trump of attempting to disenfranchise voters before Election Day.
Jill McLaughlin contributed to this report.
