DHS agents knock on doors in nine states asking residents about citizenship and voting during early voting; critics sue, a court restricts the practice (Sept.-Oct. 2026)

Case

Beginning around Sept. 1, 2026, DHS sent Homeland Security Investigations agents into nine states as part of a "coordinated criminal voter fraud surge" aimed at noncitizens who registered or voted. A CBS News investigation published Oct. 21 found armed, uniformed agents going door to door asking residents about immigration status and voting history. Critics say it intimidates lawful voters and have sued; DHS says it is investigating noncitizen voting, which is already illegal. A local report says a federal judge has found the tactics likely violate the Voting Rights Act and restricted election-related field operations in the nine states.

What was reported (Sept.-Oct. 2026)
On or about Sept. 1, 2026, DHS began sending Homeland Security Investigations agents into states including California and Nevada as part of a nine-state "coordinated criminal voter fraud surge" aimed at noncitizens who registered or voted, according to a CNN exclusive relayed by the California Globe.
A CBS News investigation published Oct. 21, 2026 found armed, uniformed DHS agents going door to door in several states to ask residents about their immigration status and whether they had registered to vote or voted in past elections.
CBS reports, citing internal documents it reviewed, that hundreds of agents were pulled off their regular cases and assigned to track down alleged noncitizen voters as part of a "surge."
CBS reports DHS builds its target lists by pulling from internal databases, voter rolls and other datasets, then matching names against citizenship data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The numbers behind the effort
Per CBS, DHS has alleged there could be as many as 250,000 noncitizens illegally registered to vote, a figure election experts dispute.
Per CBS, the Justice Department says 156 people have been charged with voting-fraud-related offenses since the start of the Trump administration, out of about 227 million registered voters.
CBS reports that DHS officials initially said they had identified nearly 16,000 noncitizens on Nevada's voter rolls but ultimately could not provide evidence of a single illegally registered voter.
The California Globe reports DHS said it had identified more than 24,000 potential cases of noncitizens on state voter rolls since April 2025.

Lawsuits and court response
Protect Democracy is suing DHS over the door-knocking campaign, according to CBS.
A federal suit in the Northern District of California, California Nurses Association v. Mullin, challenges DHS's "Unlawful Voter Initiative," alleging it used flawed data to build noncitizen target lists and sent armed agents on home visits during early voting in nine states, in violation of Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which bars voter intimidation.
KHOU reports a federal judge found the door-to-door tactics likely violate the Voting Rights Act and ordered federal immigration authorities to stop election-related field operations in the nine states when officials know, or should reasonably suspect, that the people being questioned are U.S. citizens; the judge also warned of a high likelihood of error in how targets are identified.
Harris County, Texas Democratic leaders called a news conference to respond to the reports, according to KHOU.

Perspectives

Official position — DHS (Secretary Markwayne Mullin) and HSI
DHS says election security is national security and that only Americans should be electing American leaders, and that allowing even one noncitizen to vote cancels out a citizen's vote. It describes the surge as criminal investigation of noncitizens who registered or voted, which is already illegal. HSI's Kansas City office posted that it is committed to protecting election integrity by investigating voter fraud and holding violators accountable.

Critic — Protect Democracy (Jessica Marsden) and civil rights advocates
Marsden, a Protect Democracy lawyer, says the federal government is inserting itself into the states' voter-roll verification process in an unprecedented way and doing so in a manner that seems designed to scare lawful voters. Civil rights advocates warn that armed agents at residents' doors can have a chilling effect on legal voters.

Expert view — Eric Balliet, former HSI agent
Balliet told CBS the door-knocking operation is a significant departure from traditional law enforcement activities.

Note
DHS says the effort protects election integrity; critics, including Protect Democracy, say it is designed to scare lawful voters, and election experts dispute DHS's estimate of how many noncitizens are registered.

Sources
[1] CBS News — Federal agents knock on doors to track down possible noncitizen voters ahead of midterms (https://cbsnews.com/news/federal-agents-seek-noncitizen-voters) · 2026-10-21
[2] KHOU 11 Houston — Harris County Democrats raise voter intimidation concerns after federal agents question residents in 9 states (https://www.khou.com/article/news/politics/elections/voter-intimidation-federal-agents-voting-rights-houston-texas/285-23ede2a5-bde3-49b9-a1b7-78aca9b7d732) · 2026-10-23
[3] California Globe — Federal Agents Head to California and Nevada as DHS Opens Noncitizen Voting Probe (https://californiaglobe.com/?p=94954) · 2026-09-01
[4] Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse — California Nurses Association v. Mullin (N.D. Cal.) (https://clearinghouse.net/case/48482/)

Connections

Related — Democratic leaders sue Trump, DOJ and DHS over threats to election officials and pressure to purge voters (filed Oct. 20, 2026)
Another legal challenge to federal pressure on election officials and voters ahead of the midterms.

Shared mechanism — DOJ demands California set aside ballots of alleged noncitizens, then sues (Oct. 13-15, 2026)
Both rest on federal lists of suspected noncitizen voters, built from database matching, that officials and experts say are error-prone.

Related — Early-voting pressure incidents in October 2026: federal agents seen near polls in Florida, a megaphone confrontation in Las Vegas, and harassment reports in Lewiston, Maine
Both concern federal agents' presence in voters' environment during early voting; the DHS entry covers a coordinated program, this one covers scattered local incidents.

Related — Election claims tracker: fraud allegations, federal actions and what the evidence shows (Nov. 2026 midterms)
Hub entry tracking fraud claims, federal actions and what the evidence shows for the Nov. 2026 midterms; the DHS door-knocking surge is one of those actions.

Same context — Election denial and interference efforts before the Nov. 2026 midterms: pardons, the Tina Peters case, Georgia's federal-intervention letters and National Guard troops near a DC ballot box
Both document federal and allied actions around the Nov. 2026 midterms that critics say interfere with voting; this entry covers DHS home visits to question residents about citizenship and voting.