Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
ICE records show Homeland Security Investigations obtained about 99 million voter records and considered loading them into Palantir’s ELITE tool
The records were released October 7, 2026 through a Democracy Forward FOIA suit, in ICE FOIA cases 26-0510, 0511 and 0512.
What happened
Documents released October 7, 2026 show ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations obtained about 99 million voter records. Of these, 48.4 million came from “independent sources” connected to Heather Honey, 50.6 million from the Justice Department, and 26,000 from USCIS. Honey, a 2020 election activist, is now senior adviser to the ICE director and counselor to Secretary Mullin.
HSI considered entering state voter-roll data into ELITE, the Palantir tool ICE uses to locate people for arrest. It prioritized Texas, Pennsylvania, California, New Jersey, Minnesota, Michigan, Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Ohio.
HSI also examined voting machines and “counties with 2020 results,” monitored primaries, and coordinated with the Postal Inspection Service. The records were forced out in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by Democracy Forward.
Who benefited
ICE acquired, through intermediaries and the Justice Department, much of what courts had refused to order states to hand over. Palantir, whose targeting system was proposed as the destination for the data, also stood to gain.
Who wanted something
DHS leadership and Heather Honey, whose network supplied nearly half the records, wanted the data. The administration had been told no by 26 courts, and this is the route around them.
Who lost out
The 99 million people whose registration records are now in an immigration-enforcement agency. States whose privacy laws courts upheld saw the data arrive by another door. Anyone the system misidentifies is whom ELITE is designed to locate.
Why it matters
The voter rolls have joined the immigration data ICE is fusing into one system. Records of who is registered sit inside the agency that deports people, under consideration for the tool it uses to find them.
Sources ICE FOIA production to Democracy Forward (hosted by Democracy Docket) (primary)Democracy DocketDemocracy Docket