DOJ Seeks Penalties Over Critique of Noncitizen Voting Claims

WHO:

ABC News US - The Justice Department urged a federal judge to consider contempt proceedings against an immigrant rights group over its disclosure of an analysis of a dataset of alleged noncitizens registered to vote in California.

ABC News Politics - The Justice Department urged a federal judge to consider contempt proceedings against an immigrant rights group over its disclosure of an analysis of a dataset of alleged noncitizens registered to vote in California.

PBS - The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) and its lawyers were identified by the Justice Department as possible subjects of contempt charges.

PBS - Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, based in Washington, D.C., allowed CHIRLA access to government data and imposed restrictions on its use and disclosure.

PBS - Alberto Lammers, a spokesman for the UCLA Voting Rights Project, said plaintiffs’ counsel and experts “fully complied with the Court’s orders.”

NBC News - An NBC News review found that about three-quarters of the noncitizen-voting prosecutions brought by the Justice Department targeted lawful permanent residents.

WHAT:

PBS - The Justice Department defended the accuracy of a list containing more than 20,000 people it says are suspected noncitizens registered to vote in California.

PBS - CHIRLA’s analysis found that more than 40% of the listed people did not appear in California’s voter file; it identified 22 people as likely naturalized U.S. citizens and said thousands more U.S. citizens also appeared on the list.

PBS - The Justice Department argued the analysis violated Boasberg’s order and suggested referring the matter for a possible criminal contempt investigation.

PBS - The department said the analysis’s claims about inaccuracies and comparisons with the full California voter file were irrelevant to whether the plaintiffs had legal standing.

PBS - In a separate case, the Justice Department appealed a ruling barring it from requiring election offices to remove possible noncitizens from voter rolls, separate their ballots, or face legal threats.

PBS - Federal judges rejected the administration’s demand that California officials separate ballots cast by alleged noncitizens; one judge said last-minute orders could “wreak havoc” on the state’s election.

NBC News - The Justice Department’s effort had led to roughly 200 prosecutions among 174 million registered voters in the United States.

NBC News - The article’s headline describes the majority of people charged as noncitizen voters as lawfully in the United States.

WHERE:

ABC News US - The disputed dataset concerns alleged noncitizens registered to vote in California.

ABC News Politics - The disputed dataset concerns alleged noncitizens registered to vote in California.

PBS - The data and voter-file dispute concerns California; Boasberg’s court is in Washington, D.C., and the separate case was before a San Francisco-based federal judge.

WHY:

PBS - The Justice Department said CHIRLA’s analysis was unrelated to the plaintiffs’ standing arguments, the purpose for which Boasberg had permitted access to the data.

PBS - California election officials said the list contains errors and that they could not complete the legally required work to remove voters in the days before the election.

HOW:

PBS - Boasberg ordered plaintiffs not to disclose names from the list and to use the data only to argue why they had standing to challenge the administration’s use of it.

PBS - The administration said it compiled its list using California voter-registration data checked against federal citizenship records.

PBS - The Justice Department issued subpoenas to California election offices and warned that officials who knowingly allowed noncitizens to vote could face criminal charges.

PBS - California voters attest to U.S. citizenship when registering and risk felony prosecution if they vote while ineligible.

(UPDATED November 2, 2026 09:57 UTC)

The Justice Department urged a judge to consider contempt proceedings against an immigrant rights group. The dispute concerns its analysis of a government list of alleged noncitizen voters in California. The group says many listed people were citizens or absent from voter rolls.