The Justice Department has fired off a warning shot to every state election office in the country. In letters dated Tuesday, the department told officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia that they could face criminal prosecution if they knowingly leave noncitizens on the rolls of eligible voters.
It's the latest move in a broader campaign by President Donald Trump's administration to tighten its grip on how states run elections — this time with November's midterms, which will determine control of Congress, squarely in view.
Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, signed the letters. She pointed to a handful of federal statutes meant to protect election integrity and keep noncitizens from voting, arguing they give the department grounds to pursue charges against officials who look the other way.
One line from her letter, reviewed by Reuters, cuts to the point: any election officer — including a state's top election official — who knowingly keeps noncitizens on the voter rolls or helps them get and cast ballots "could be subject to criminal liability."
This isn't the administration's first swing at the issue. Elections are constitutionally a state matter, but Trump and his allies have pushed repeatedly for more federal control over them, insisting that noncitizens voting illegally threatens the integrity of American elections. The evidence tells a different story — multiple studies have found that noncitizen voting is exceedingly rare.
The Justice Department's track record on this particular fight isn't strong. It has already lost a string of lawsuits trying to pry loose nonpublic voter data from states, data officials say they wanted to help scrub ineligible voters from the rolls. That losing streak hasn't stopped the department from escalating — these letters raise the stakes by dangling the threat of criminal charges rather than just legal demands.
A Justice Department spokesperson framed the letters as a request rather than a mandate, saying the department asked states and D.C. for voluntary, timely compliance with federal law requiring that only citizens vote in federal elections.
"Arizona election officials have always worked to ensure that only eligible citizens are registered to vote, and we will continue following Arizona law — not directions that come from political rhetoric or intimidation.
— Adrian Fontes, Arizona Secretary of State
Democratic election officials weren't shy about pushing back. In Michigan, secretary of state spokesperson Angela Benander said her office has already put significant safeguards in place to keep ineligible voters off the rolls.
Arizona's Adrian Fontes went further, framing the DOJ's letter as political pressure rather than a genuine legal concern — and made clear his office would keep following state law regardless.
Neither official's state was accused of any specific violation in the letters; the warnings went out uniformly to all 50 states and D.C.
A Pattern of Pressure
This is far from an isolated gesture. The administration has spent months trying different angles — pushing voter ID legislation in the Senate, seeking voter data through the courts, and now threatening prosecution — all aimed at the same underlying goal of tightening federal reach into how states manage their rolls.
Courts have repeatedly rebuffed the data-collection efforts. Whether the threat of criminal liability carries more weight than the failed lawsuits remains to be seen, especially with the midterms approaching fast.
