Judge Gives Trump DOJ New Deadline in Fight Over 20,000 California Ballots - Newsweek

A federal judge has ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to turn over its list of approximately 20,000 suspected noncitizen voters in California to immigration advocacy groups by 5 p.m. Friday.

Chief Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg ordered the DOJ to provide the list to attorneys representing the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) and a California voter during a hearing Friday.

The order comes as a federal appeals court Friday rejected the DOJ's demand that California election officials hold back the midterm ballots from 20,000 people over claims they were likely noncitizens.

The legal challenges are part of a broader confrontation between the Trump administration and California officials over federal authority to investigate voter registration records and potential noncitizen voting.

Newsweek has reached out to the DOJ and CHIRLA for comment.

During Friday's hearing, Chad Dunn, legal director of the UCLA Voting Rights Project, who represents the plaintiffs, argued that the government's voter investigations were creating uncertainty among California residents.

"If you're a voter in California you have to wonder if you're on this list; will you ever be on this list?" Dunn said.

He told the court that CHIRLA had received calls from concerned individuals who were worried about their inclusion on the government's list.

Some callers, he said, were asking how they could determine whether their names appeared on it, while others expressed concerns about voting.

"It absolutely has a suppressive effect," Dunn told the court.

The administration said that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had compared voter registration information with federal immigration records to identify potential matches. The government, in its complaint, said it used multiple identifiers to establish what it described as high-confidence matches, with additional searches intended to determine whether individuals had subsequently become naturalized citizens or obtained citizenship through their parents.

Boasberg ordered the government to provide the list by Friday evening, giving the plaintiffs an opportunity to examine whether their members or clients had been identified. However, the judge placed restrictions on how the information could be used. Under the order, the plaintiffs cannot distribute the list beyond their legal team. They are permitted, however, to make public statements and draw conclusions about whether individuals they represent appear on the government's list.

Boasberg also questioned the DOJ's refusal to commit to not sending additional lists of suspected noncitizen voters to election officials. At one point, Boasberg pressed government attorneys to provide an assurance that no further lists would be distributed.

"You could all sit down and have a nice weekend if you say you won't send lists," Boasberg told DOJ attorney Ty Trejo.

Trejo declined to make that commitment, maintaining that the federal government had authority to enforce voting laws if public officials failed to act. He said he believed no additional lists would be created but that the government reserved the right to update existing lists.

A DOJ spokesperson previously told Newsweek that approximately 20,000 individuals had been manually verified to date, adding that the number could increase.

Boasberg's order follows a separate ruling Wednesday by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who rejected the DOJ's request to require California election officials to segregate approximately 20,000 ballots allegedly cast by noncitizens.

The federal government had sought a temporary restraining order against California and Los Angeles County election officials while its lawsuit proceeded.

Carter rejected the request, warning that the government's proposed intervention could disrupt an election already underway.

"If the Executive can discount votes and threaten an ongoing election due to unproven allegations, then our democracy is in danger," Carter wrote.

He also warned that separating ballots based on unproven allegations could cause lasting harm to voters and election officials.

The judge questioned whether the federal government had demonstrated sufficient legal grounds to compel California to change its ballot-counting procedures. Carter also raised concerns about the reliability of the government's evidence, including potential inaccuracies in databases used to identify individuals believed to be noncitizens.

The ruling allowed California election officials to continue counting ballots under existing state procedures while the underlying litigation continues.

The administration had appealed the decision, but on Friday an appeals court again rejected the bid. The 9th Circuit ruled 2-1, citing the Constitution's Elections Clause and the National Voter Registration Act.

The latest dispute is part of a growing number of legal challenges involving the Trump administration's efforts to obtain voter registration information and investigate suspected noncitizen voting.

A September 18 lawsuit challenged the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) home visits to suspected noncitizens as part of the so-called Unlawful Voter Initiative.

The plaintiffs, which include the California Nurses Association, National Nurses United, Santa Clara County, the City and County of San Francisco and Voto Latino Foundation, allege that the DHS compiled lists of suspected noncitizens they distributed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field offices. Agents were allegedly then directed to conduct in-person investigations at people's homes.

According to the lawsuit, the database matching process risked incorrectly identifying naturalized U.S. citizens and other eligible voters, potentially exposing them to questioning about their citizenship and voting history.

The plaintiffs argue that the investigations could intimidate eligible voters and violate federal voting protections, including Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voter intimidation, threats and coercion.

On October 21, a federal judge in the Northern District of California granted the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction restricting DHS from conducting certain election-related operations against individuals it suspects, or should suspect, are U.S. citizens during the active election season. The administration has challenged the injunction, and the litigation remains ongoing.

Meanwhile, the DOJ has escalated its dispute with California by directing federal prosecutors to pursue criminal grand jury subpoenas targeting state and local election officials.

DOJ leadership directed federal prosecutors in California to seek subpoenas concerning officials' handling of voter registration records and the administration's allegations of noncitizen voting. The move came shortly after Carter rejected the administration's request for California election officials to set aside approximately 20,000 ballots.

Subpoenas were subsequently issued to employees of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's Office, according to ABC News, which reviewed copies of the documents. Some officials were ordered to appear before a federal grand jury on November 4, the day after the midterm elections.

Prosecutors are seeking internal documents and communications concerning federal requests to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, as well as records detailing how election officials screen for potentially unlawful voting by noncitizens.

At least four California election workers had received federal grand jury subpoenas, according to local reporting, including an Orange County election office that received a subpoena seeking unredacted voter records concerning 60 individuals.

The move prompted criticism from Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan, who said the DOJ had adopted a "confrontational, adversarial approach" toward election officials.

"Threats and intimidation have no place in elections," Logan said in a statement.

The subpoenas followed Carter's warning to federal prosecutors that threats against election officials needed to stop. In his October 28 ruling, the judge wrote: "Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch."

The DOJ has defended its actions, arguing that suspected noncitizen voting is a criminal matter that warrants investigation.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Gabe Whisnant and Dave Siminoff.