A judge blocked DHS voter sweeps in nine states. She called its target lists "unreliable."
The order bars agents from questioning likely citizens until polls close Nov. 3. It's paused until Friday for an appeal.
A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday blocked most Homeland Security field operations in the administration's hunt for noncitizen voters in nine states: California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, a Biden appointee, issued a 19-page preliminary injunction in California Nurses Association v. Mullin (No. 26-cv-10680-AMO, N.D. Cal.). It bars DHS from election-related field operations and interviews involving people agents "know, suspect, or should reasonably know or suspect are U.S. citizens." A preliminary injunction is a temporary order that holds things in place while the case continues.
Who sent agents to the door
The administration calls the program the "Unlawful Voter Initiative." Armed Homeland Security Investigations agents have been knocking on doors and asking residents whether they voted. San Francisco, Santa Clara County, the California Nurses Association, National Nurses United, and the Voto Latino Foundation sued in September.
The judge found the nurses' unions likely to win their claim under the Voting Rights Act, which bars intimidating people who help others vote. She wrote that "the initial target list data is voluminous and unreliable," and that DHS policy targets some naturalized citizens. That matches a separate lawsuit's claim that DHS flagged citizens as "unlawful voters." She also found DHS surveilled nonprofits and churches doing voter engagement, writing, "As of July 2026, DHS targeted at least 148 such organizations."
She made clear she was not banning voter-fraud investigations outright, CBS News reported.
DHS said it uses multiple data sources beyond public voter rolls to eliminate false positives. The judge found the lists unreliable anyway.
What happens next
The order is paused until 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, so the government can appeal, and it ends when polls close on Election Day, Nov. 3, unless the court says otherwise.
"It was clear from the start that DHS built its lists on bad data," Beau Tremitiere, a lawyer at Protect Democracy, which represents the plaintiffs, told CBS News.
We applaud this ruling. If an agent comes to your door asking how you voted, you don't have to answer, and you can ask for a lawyer. California voters can also see how the state answered DOJ's 20,000-ballot suit.
Sources
- Order Granting Preliminary Injunction, California Nurses Association v. Mullin, No. 26-cv-10680-AMO (U.S. District Court, N.D. Cal. (via CourtListener))
- California Nurses Association v. Mullin docket (CourtListener)
- Judge blocks Homeland Security from conducting election-related sweeps in 9 states (States Newsroom)
- Judge curbs DHS efforts to conduct sweeps for possible noncitizen voters (CBS News)
- Judge restricts DHS field operations aimed at unearthing voter fraud (The New York Times, via The Philadelphia Inquirer)
- New Suit Filed Against DHS Over Field Investigations into Americans' Eligibility to Vote (National Immigration Law Center)
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