Coverage Roundup: ICE Caught Targeting Voter Registration Groups, Amassing Tens of Millions of Voter Records

WASHINGTON, DC - Internal ICE documents pried loose by a Democracy Forward lawsuit show how far Trump's paramilitary force will go to rig the midterms on his behalf. ICE collected tens of millions of voter records, including 48.4 million gathered by a 2020 election denier now sitting in a senior DHS job. It investigated more than 150 organizations that help Americans register to vote, 82 of them in Pennsylvania alone, and weighed sending undercover agents to "dismantle" them. It flagged a Muslim civil rights group and a mall skate shop for further investigation. Most of those reviews turned up nothing, because noncitizen voting is vanishingly rare and they know it. This was never about fraud. It’s about Trump and Republicans using federal agents to scare voters and the people who register them four weeks before Election Day because they can’t win a fair fight.

CNN

ICE reviewed tens of millions of voter records looking for noncitizen voters, records show

The 166 pages show the infrastructure built inside ICE to chase Trump's election fraud beliefs: layers of data review, weekly progress reports, primaries under watch, and 50.6 million records from the Justice Department alongside the 48.4 million Heather Honey brought in. On June 8, ICE told senior officials that agents planned search warrants and more than 100 interviews in Ohio, and three days later federal agents raided the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. Democracy Forward's Skye Perryman said "the president and his allies want to pick their voters."

New York Times

Trump Officials Ramp Up Investigations Into Voter Registration Groups

Homeland security officials investigated more than 150 organizations and considered sending in undercover agents who could gather evidence and "disrupt activities." The 48.4 million records Heather Honey supplied are of unknown provenance, and she is known for inventing and promoting false election claims. In Nevada, the state checked 185 names that federal officials said they had vetted and identified as noncitizens, and every one was a lawful citizen.

MS NOW

Watchdog group warns Trump officials trying to 'scare and intimidate voters' with investigations

Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman joined Morning Joe to walk through the records, which the group says show ICE's criminal investigative arm using government power to silence eligible voters and block access to the ballot after obtaining more than 48 million voter records.

MS NOW

'A modern police state': Trump emboldens ICE to help him suppress the vote

Skye Perryman joined Ali Velshi on The 11th Hour to discuss the new reports of ICE overreach, and the fear that Trump will deploy what has become a secret and unaccountable federal police force to intimidate voters as Election Day nears.

Democracy Docket

ICE probed hundreds of voter registration groups across the U.S.

ICE spent the past year investigating hundreds of nonprofits that help people register to vote, concentrating on the battlegrounds of Ohio and Pennsylvania and reaching into New Jersey, Minnesota and Washington, D.C. Its investigative arm contemplated using undercover agents against the groups to "initiate prosecutions and dismantle illicit facilitation networks." In New Jersey, agents ran at least 41 organizations through their databases and came up empty.

Democracy Docket

ICE amassed millions of voter records in sweeping fraud hunt, documents reveal

ICE's investigative arm obtained 48.4 million voter records through sources tied to Heather Honey, a longtime promoter of false 2020 election claims who is now a senior DHS official, and another 50.6 million from the Justice Department. The agency also explored investigations involving voting machines and "counties with 2020 results," and coordinated with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service on voter fraud cases.

Democracy Docket

ICE investigates mall staple favored by teen skaters in its hunt for noncitizen voters

Zumiez, the skate and streetwear chain, was flagged "for further investigation" in Pennsylvania, apparently because it supports voter outreach. The company is headquartered in Washington state and partners with groups like Voto Latino and Skate to the Polls to register young voters.

Democracy Docket

ICE tried to share voter data with Peter Thiel's Palantir, new documents show

ICE tried to route voter data from Missouri, Michigan, New Mexico, Connecticut, Georgia and Kentucky into ELITE, the Palantir tool it uses to find and prioritize people for deportation. A July internal report listed the data as "pending Palantir entry into ELITE." Five of those six states refused to give the Justice Department their unredacted voter rolls and were sued for it.

Scripps

Records show ICE reviewed tens of millions of voter records looking for noncitizen voters

By late May the operation had opened 418 voter-fraud cases and made 64 administrative arrests, and 318 of those cases had not been referred for prosecution. Where the evidence was too thin for a criminal case, internal legal guidance pointed ICE attorneys to deportation instead, noting that "no conviction is required." Status updates on the probes went to White House officials starting in July.

States Newsroom

Documents show DHS probed nonprofits, obtained millions of records in hunt for noncitizen voters

A June 1 report shows 82 nonprofits reviewed in Pennsylvania alone, with the state's Council on American-Islamic Relations chapter flagged for further investigation. Education Minnesota, a teachers union, was among 22 organizations agents were starting to research, and it only found out this week from Democracy Forward. Its president, Monica Byron, said "we will not be deterred."

New Republic

ICE Secretly Investigated Hundreds of Nonprofits Across the Country

The probe went beyond voter registration groups. Agents also monitored this year's state primaries, looking for "any notable trends or vulnerabilities in upholding election integrity." All of it appears aimed at proving a long-running conservative conspiracy theory that Democrats register noncitizens to win elections.

Popular Information

ICE-ing the midterms

Heather Honey holds a DHS election integrity post that did not exist in previous administrations. She worked as a subcontractor on the Cyber Ninjas review in Arizona and founded the Pennsylvania partner of Cleta Mitchell's Election Integrity Network. Her operation found "no derogatory information" on the vast majority of the organizations it investigated.

Newsweek

ICE Probes Voting Groups, Infiltrates Anti-ICE Crews in Election Crackdown

The same records show ICE has already run undercover operations against critics. A July report on anti-ICE rapid response networks in Minneapolis says "HSI undercover agents have infiltrated these groups." The records also describe arrests of green-card holders for alleged unlawful voting, including two from Bosnia and Liberia with no criminal history.

NonStop Local

New documents show broad federal review of voter registration

Investigators examined dozens of nonprofit voter registration groups. A review carried out in Idaho found only 15 noncitizens.

Black Chronicle

Democracy Forward: ICE Investigated Voter Registration Groups, Considered Undercover Operations