Judge curbs DHS efforts to conduct sweeps for possible noncitizen voters

A federal judge ruled late Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's practice of knocking on doors and asking people about their immigration status — and whether they have voted in recent elections — likely violates the Voting Rights Act.

The ruling took aim at an operation that was documented by a CBS News investigation earlier Wednesday. Homeland Security Investigations has posted photos and videos of agents approaching homes in multiple states. The Trump administration says the practice is part of an effort to crack down on voting by noncitizens, but critics say it could intimidate legal voters. 

In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin ordered federal immigration authorities to stop carrying out "elections-related field operations and field interviews" in nine states, including California and New York, if the operations are likely to involve people who government officials "know, suspect, or should reasonably know or suspect are U.S. citizens."

Her order will remain in effect until polls close on Election Day. She stayed the ruling until 5 p.m. on Friday, which will give the government a chance to seek appeal.  

Martinez-Olguin sided with groups that sued over the noncitizen voting investigation surge, including the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United. She found the policy likely ran afoul of a section of the Voting Rights Act that makes it illegal to "intimidate, threaten, or coerce" those who assist people with voting or engage in voter mobilization efforts.

"Plaintiffs do not claim, nor does the Court find, that it is unlawful for federal officials to undertake investigations into unlawful voting in federal elections," the judge wrote. "Rather, Plaintiffs seek to stop DHS from continuing to investigate U.S. citizens, who have a legal right to vote, in a way that intimidates and threatens the participation of CNA/NNU members from urging or aiding others to vote."

Martinez-Olguin also pointed to the "high likelihood of error" in the government's process for assembling a list of potential targets, which includes data from government agencies and commercially available data.

Protect Democracy, one of the groups that sued over the policy, celebrated the ruling.

"It was clear from the start that DHS built its lists on bad data, never checked how often it was wrong, and recklessly sent agents to people's homes weeks before an election," Beau Tremitiere, counsel at Protect Democracy, said in a statement to CBS News. "Today's ruling should remind us that American citizens hold the ultimate power in our democracy, not the government–no matter what the administration says otherwise."

CBS News has reached out to DHS for comment.

President Trump has prioritized cracking down on voter fraud during his second term, although there has been little evidence to back up his claims of widespread voting by noncitizens. Just 156 people have been charged with voting-fraud related offenses since the beginning of the Trump administration, according to the Justice Department. 

The Justice Department reported earlier this week that it arrested several dozen green card holders in California on allegations they illegally registered to vote in U.S. federal elections.