The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the state of California and a Los Angeles County official after they failed to remove illegal aliens from the voting rolls.
This is the latest development in an ongoing conflict between California and the Trump administration.
From The New York Times:
The Trump administration on Thursday sued the state of California and a Los Angeles County official, seeking to temporarily block the state from counting mail ballots submitted by voters it suspects are noncitizens.
The suit, which would apply to some 20,000 people in the state the administration has cast as “likely noncitizens,” is a long shot. But it opens a new front in the administration’s legal battles with local election officials weeks before the midterm elections.
Over the past 18 months, the Trump administration has sued California and other states over voter rolls, and has lost resoundingly in court. This time, the Justice Department is trying a new strategy, seeking a court order to prevent the counting of votes from the 20,000 people in the state identified by the Department of Homeland Security “until their citizenship status can be determined.”
Similar past claims of thousands of illegal voters have fallen apart under scrutiny. Last month, election officials in Nevada said that they had examined a list provided by homeland security officials of 185 names of supposed noncitizens who had been improperly registered to vote, and found that every person on the list was a lawful citizen.
In recent months, President Trump has claimed that hundreds of thousands of people have voted illegally. Reviews by election officials and criminal investigators have found small numbers of people who have been caught voting illegally every election cycle — but not in quantities that would come close to deciding the winners of major races.
California officials vowed to fight the administration’s effort.
“This is a sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters just three weeks before Election Day,” Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, said on social media. “Courts have made clear the federal government has no role in running state elections.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the lawsuit “is nothing more than their ongoing, dangerous, reckless, scorched-earth, widespread attempt to advance conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud that doesn’t exist.”
The federal government sent California authorities a list of about 20,000 names it claims were noncitizens who were registered to vote in the state, according to The New York Times.
Days earlier, federal authorities sent a thumb drive of roughly 20,000 names they suspected were noncitizens registered to vote in California to election officials in Los Angeles County, demanding they act within 48 hours.
In a blistering letter, Shirley N. Weber, California’s secretary of state, said the data sent by the administration “lacks both the detail and function to be of any investigative use.” She added that “nowhere has the federal government clarified the basis for suspecting — not even confirming with any level of certainty — the listed individuals are noncitizens.”
The administration’s demands and deadline, she said, “threaten thousands of Californians’ right to vote, based on unverifiable information or methodology that you still fail to explain or provide.”
California just got a federal thumb drive listing suspected noncitizens who were already mailed ballots, plus 48 hours to check them. Shirley Weber said she won't "blindly trust" the list. Gavin Newsom says asking election officials to verify citizenship means Trump is "losing his grip on reality." In most of America, checking whether voters are citizens is just called Tuesday.
— Tony Shannon (@MTonyShannon) October 15, 2026
The White House has pressured California for months to identify and remove noncitizens from its voter rolls ahead of the midterm elections. U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli noted that “For over a year, the Department of Justice has been trying to audit California’s voter rolls,” but the state has refused to comply.
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