The Trump Justice Department has secured more than 200 arrests and indictments in its crackdown on election fraud and noncitizen voting, with that number expected to rise further.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the department has indicted or convicted 67 people for election-related crimes in recent weeks, while the Department of Homeland Security has made over 160 arrests. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin reported his agency is investigating 1,620 cases of alleged noncitizen voter fraud and reviewing an additional 300,000 entries from state voter rolls.
The effort is coordinated through weekly meetings between a multi-agency group and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, part of an all-of-government push ordered by the Trump administration to clean voter rolls and prosecute illegal voting.
Dhillon noted that noncitizen voting “happens a lot more than anybody says” and was largely unprosecuted under the prior administration, which handled only 13 such cases in four years. “I think there are a lot of nervous election officials because I think some of them know that they’ve been looking the other way when this is happening, and we’re catching it all over the country,” she said.
Officials have also warned state election administrators they could face charges for overlooking fraud. New Jersey’s claim that a software “glitch” allowed thousands of noncitizens to register and about 400 to vote is under scrutiny, with Dhillon stating the state has not fully cooperated.
