Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
DHS seizes on New Jersey’s 6,600 noncitizen registrations to push the SAVE America Act
A software error at the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission registered about 6,600 people who had said they were not citizens. Fewer than 400 of them voted.
What happened
On July 31, 2026, DHS issued a statement on enforcement actions against noncitizens who voted in New Jersey, citing the state’s own disclosure of a software error. Gov. Mikie Sherrill had disclosed on July 21 that a Motor Vehicle Commission error registered about 6,600 people who had said they were not citizens, fewer than 400 of whom voted.
Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said the episode showed the need for the SAVE America Act so that only Americans elect American leaders. DHS’s statement came on July 31, ten days after Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s disclosure of the error, which was the basis of the enforcement actions it described.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division filed Sherrill’s announcement in court on July 21 to bolster its demand for New Jersey’s voter rolls. It used the disclosure the same day the governor made it. It used the disclosure the same day the governor made it, on July 21, in the court case over the department’s demand for the state’s voter rolls.
Who benefited
DHS and the Justice Department got a state’s own disclosure to use for the SAVE America Act and for the demand for New Jersey’s voter rolls. The statement and the court filing both rest on Sherrill’s July 21 announcement.
Who wanted something
DHS wanted the SAVE America Act passed, and the Justice Department wanted New Jersey’s voter rolls. Both cited the same event, a software error at the Motor Vehicle Commission that Sherrill had disclosed. Both cited the same event, a software error at the Motor Vehicle Commission that Sherrill had disclosed on July 21, 2026, to support those goals.
Who lost out
New Jersey’s disclosure of its own software error became evidence against it, in a federal statement and in a court filing. The about 6,600 people the error registered are the ones DHS’s statement counts, though fewer than 400 of them voted.
Why it matters
A state’s disclosure of its own error became the argument for a federal law and evidence in a federal demand for its voter rolls. Fewer than 400 of the 6,600 voted. DHS and DOJ both used the disclosure.
Sources Department of Homeland Security (primary)APU.S. District Court, D.N.J. (CourtListener) (primary)The Guardian