The Trump administration alleges California is allowing noncitizens to vote.
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against California, seeking a federal judge’s order barring the state from counting mail-in ballots cast by people the federal government considers illegal immigrants.
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“Under California law, every registered voter is mailed a ballot. It is illegal for undocumented immigrants to vote in federal elections,” the U.S. government said in a statement.
The motion was filed 48 hours after President Donald Trump’s administration threatened California election officials if they did not review a list of alleged noncitizens on Los Angeles’ voter rolls.
“Preliminary analysis has identified a significant number of people in California who are likely not citizens and appear to be registered to vote; the analysis and review are ongoing,” the Justice Department said.
The Trump administration maintains that California election officials refused to comply with the demand to clean up the voter rolls despite being given an ultimatum.
Root: You have the right to declare a national security emergency for elections. If you do this in the next month, we will get photo ID, proof of citizenship, and a limit to mail-in ballots…
Trump: Let me just say stranger things have happened. I’ll leave it at that. pic.twitter.com/89h4OnJkHz
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 11, 2026
“Our lawsuit alleges that California is facilitating illegal voting by knowingly allowing noncitizens to vote. This must end,” the statement said.
In recent weeks, the U.S. government has stepped up its demands for voter registration roll reviews ahead of the midterm elections. State officials have rejected that pressure, noting that states are solely responsible for organizing elections within their territories.
In a letter to the Justice Department, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber pointed out that the federal government had not provided evidence to support its allegation that 20,000 names on the voter rolls belonged to noncitizens.
“She cited a case in which the federal government alleged that nearly 16,000 possible noncitizens were listed on Nevada’s voter rolls, but the state determined that all of them were, in fact, U.S. citizens,” the East Bay Times reported.
“The letter sent by acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter gave the state 48 hours to research the list of the 20,000 people it claims might not be citizens. For those whose citizenship cannot be independently verified, the state is to instruct local election officials to segregate their mail-in ballots until their status can be determined, and to not provide a ballot to anyone who has not yet received one,” the local outlet added.
teleSUR/ JF
Sources: EFE – East Bay Times
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