WASHINGTON DC (KOLO) – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is one of a number of Democrats accusing DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin of interference in the midterms.
She, Gary Peters(D-MI), Alex Padilla(D-CA), Dick Durbin(D-IL) and Chuck Schumer(D-NY), are accusing the DHS Secretary of attempting to assert federal control over the election process.
The Senators called the DHS’ claims that 250,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in four states unfounded.
They also criticized DHS efforts to pressure states into providing voter information.
“We write to warn you against continued activities at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that seek to undermine the Constitutional authority of both Congress and states to administer elections and defy the directions of federal courts. As Secretary of Homeland Security, you have promoted the President’s conspiracy theories about our elections, pressured states to participate in illegal activities, and explicitly threatened to reduce grant funding and initiate criminal investigations for those states that do not comply with the Administration’s demands,” the Senators began.
“According to the whistleblower, USCIS staff were given a list of names and told to use sensitive personally identifiable information to impersonate voters and access state voter registration websites to verify individuals’ immigration and voter registration statuses. Equipped with incomplete and unverifiable data compiled with ‘supplemental magic,’ USCIS staff are allegedly being directed to create law enforcement records on individuals, including U.S. citizens, for possible referral to HSI for further investigation,” the Senators wrote. “If true, this is just another alarming effort by the Department to use data that USCIS materials admit may be inaccurate, coupled with questionable means to potentially disenfranchise voters.”
“The 2026 midterm elections are already underway. Your unsubstantiated allegations of noncitizen voter fraud, public recitation of unreliable data, and unwarranted conditioning of continued grant funding for state election security measures on compliance with politically motivated requests for voter data appear to be calculated efforts to undermine confidence in our elections and risks wrongly disenfranchising voters,” the Senators concluded.
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