'Should Concern All Americans': Records Show ICE Has Gathered 50 Million Voter Records Ahead of Midterms

Documents obtained and released on Wednesday by the advocacy group Democracy Forward show that the investigative arm of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has gathered tens of millions of voter records ahead of the midterm elections as part of a purported effort to combat "voter fraud."

Democracy Forward, which obtained the ICE documents through the Freedom of Information Act, said records from the agency's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) branch underscore how the Trump administration is "using the power of the government to try to silence eligible voters and prevent them from accessing the ballot."

The 166-page document that ICE turned over to Democracy Forward shows that HSI has considered sending undercover agents to investigate nonprofit organizations accused of illegally registering noncitizens to vote. President Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly and baselessly claimed that noncitizen voting is a significant problem in the US.

HSI admits in one of the newly released documents that its "review" of more than 40 nonprofits in New Jersey uncovered "no derogatory information."

"The information revealed in the documents should concern all Americans and is further evidence of an alarming attempt by the executive branch to undermine our elections. It appears the president and his allies want to pick their voters, as opposed to the way things are supposed to function in a democracy where voters pick their leaders," said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward. “If not for the laws that protect the public’s right to know what their government is doing, the public likely would have never known about these concerning schemes. We will continue to use all legal tools to expose threats to our elections and to challenge them swiftly.”

Democracy Forward noted that the records also show that HSI has "obtained 26,235 US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)-derived records, and 50.6 million voter roll records from the US Department of Justice, for investigating so-called voter fraud."

"Notably, ICE listed out priority states for each set of these records, including Texas, Pennsylvania, California, New Jersey, Minnesota, Michigan, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio," the group said. "Alarmingly, certain state voter roll data may have been entered into Palantir’s ELITE app, which is used by ICE to identify, prioritize, and locate targets for deportation. HSI may also be investigating voting machines and seeking to prove voter fraud in 'counties with 2020 results.'"

ICE's efforts are part of what watchdogs and election experts have characterized as a sweeping, lawless attempt by the Trump administration to disrupt the 2026 midterms, which will determine control of the US Congress.

Hart Wood, senior oversight counsel at Democracy Forward, said the ICE documents provide "chilling new insights into the breadth and depth of the Trump-Vance administration’s efforts to pursue baseless claims of widespread election fraud and assert greater federal control over elections ahead of the 2026 midterms."

"These records also expose the influence of election denier Heather Honey at both [the Department of Homeland Security] and ICE—including her working in partnership with activists and feeding nearly 50 million records from ‘independent sources’ into DHS voter fraud data collection," said Wood. "They also show, for the first time, that HSI may be using undercover agents to investigate non-profits for purely political reasons.”