Federal judge restricts DHS field operations targeting suspected noncitizen voters in nine states

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday restricting Department of Homeland Security field operations that look for suspected noncitizen voters in nine states: California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin. The order bars election-related field interviews of people agents know, suspect or reasonably should suspect are U.S. citizens, and operations targeting them that rely solely on records from the agency's voter-matching program. The judge found the activist groups suing DHS likely to succeed on a claim that the operations violate the Voting Rights Act's ban on intimidating voter assistance and mobilization. She paused the order until 5 p.m. Friday so the administration can appeal. It would run through the Nov. 3 election and would not bar all DHS investigations. The court said DHS built lists from voter rolls, commercial databases and federal records, some of questioned reliability, and used artificial intelligence tools.

Right-leaning outlets, Daily Wire and Fox News, both highlight that the judge was appointed by Joe Biden and was born in Mexico, and Fox adds her six years at the ACLU. Fox's headline stresses the timing days before the midterms. NPR leads with the Voting Rights Act finding. Alternative and independent outlets had not reported this story at the time of writing, while left-leaning and right-leaning outlets had.