Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
The Justice Department issues four national releases charging noncitizens with voting as early voting nears
The cases are individual and small, but they are announced from Washington, one of them jointly by the Attorney General and the Homeland Security Secretary.
What happened
In the weeks before early voting, the Justice Department issued four national press releases announcing criminal cases against noncitizens for registering or voting in 2022, 2024 and the 2026 primaries. Five were charged in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Wisconsin (September 4); 12 individuals including three noncitizens (September 28); ten in Minnesota (September 30); and 16 more (October 5).
On September 30, Attorney General Blanche and DHS Secretary Mullin jointly announced the indictment of ten people in Minnesota, nine of them lawful permanent residents. The release carried their photographs. A grand jury had charged them with registering or voting in 2022, 2024 or the August 2026 primary, and the two departments presented the cases together.
The cases are real and small. The Minnesota release describes individual registrations and ballots, and Votebeat’s count of New Jersey’s noncitizen votes was in the dozens, against hundreds of thousands of eligible ballots rejected. On October 1 a Trump-appointed judge in Florida dismissed one such prosecution.
Who benefited
The administration gets a new headline every week, with photographs, to stand in for a national crisis. The individual cases are offered as the evidence that one exists. The individual cases, each of one person and one or two ballots, are the evidence offered for a national problem with the voter rolls.
Who wanted something
The White House and DHS wanted prosecutions behind their claims about the voter rolls before Election Day. The joint Blanche-Mullin release shows the Justice Department and the immigration agency presenting the cases as one program.
Who lost out
Lawful permanent residents among the defendants face deportation over a registration form. Election officials must answer for a “crisis” that Votebeat counts in the dozens of ballots in New Jersey, set against hundreds of thousands of eligible ballots that were rejected.
Why it matters
Each case is real; together they are a drumbeat timed to early voting and run from Washington, with the Homeland Security Secretary at the podium. The prosecutions supply one half of a story about the voter rolls. The record notes the prosecutions and the proportion.
Sources U.S. Department of Justice (primary)U.S. Department of Justice (primary)U.S. Department of Justice (primary)VotebeatDemocracy Docket