Trump administration tasks ICE with tracking 'false' voters ahead of the midterms

https://english.elpais.com/usa/2026-06-16/trump-administration-tasks-ice-with-tracking-false-voters-ahead-of-the-midterms.html

Trump administration tasks ICE with tracking ‘false’ voters ahead of the midterms

In an election year that could reshape the political balance, Homeland Security Investigations directly asked election officials in Texas and North Carolina for information on at least nine voters.

PATRICIA CLAREMBAUX
Houston - JUN 16, 2026 - 07:00 EDT

With no basis in evidence, Donald Trump has spent years sowing doubt about possible electoral fraud in the United States. Now, months before the midterm elections — when key congressional seats that could reshape the political balance are at stake — it has emerged that the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has directly requested voting files for a handful of specific voters from election officials in battleground states such as Texas and North Carolina. EL PAÍS has had access an email chain between the federal agency and local authorities.

In Texas, the request was made to officials in Webb County, which includes the border city of Laredo, home to more than 269,000 residents, according to Census estimates for July 2025. In an email sent May 12, 2026, a special agent from the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit in that area asked the county election administrator directly for the voter registration documents and voting records of seven voters.

In the chain of emails, obtained by the nonprofit organization Democracy Forward through a public records lawsuit, the HSI agent refers to a phone conversation between the two but does not detail why he needs the information on these particular individuals.

In an earlier exchange, in April 2026, another HSI criminal analyst in Victoria, Texas, wrote to the Office of the Texas Secretary of State asking how to obtain voter information, including registration dates, the method by which voters had registered, and the elections in which they had voted. She asked whether the process should be handled directly through the counties, via an administrative subpoena, or through a grand jury. That email did state the request would be made as part of “an investigation in progress between HSI Victoria and Corpus Christi,” both Texas cities, but gave no further details.

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