Exclusive: ICE obtains local voter files in two counties

ICE investigators are going straight to local election officials for individual voter files, and they obtained them in two counties, according to emails shared with Axios.

Why it matters: President Trump's decades-long push to root out alleged noncitizen voting has evolved into a multi-agency effort reaching into state and local voter systems.

• Trump said he believes millions of people, including non-citizens, are voting illegally and that is why he lost the popular vote in 2016 and the general election in 2020.
• Documented cases of non-citizen voting are rare: The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, tracks convictions and court records of voter fraud. It shows 100 documented cases of non-citizen voting between 1982 and 2025.

Driving the news: Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative unit within ICE, asked county election officials in Texas for specific voter files this May, according to emails obtained from records requests made by Democracy Forward and shared with Axios.

• A separate records request showed another HSI agent asking last November for registration information for two voters in Forsyth County, North Carolina.
• In the cases of Webb County in Texas and Forsyth County in North Carolina, the voter files were shared with HSI, the emails show.
• HSI's fraud task force has investigated voter fraud before, but it's been a relatively small part of its investigative portfolio.

Behind the scenes: This followed an April email request from an HSI "criminal analyst" asking what information and what types of subpoenas are needed to gather information. The request was sent to Texas's Secretary of State's general counsel.

• "Pursuant to ongoing investigations," the criminal analyst wrote, "I am seeking information referencing obtaining voter information; specifically dates and methods of registration, elections voted in etc."
• Voter files can include registration history, a person's address, date of birth, driver's license number and voting history.
• "Using ICE to pursue a problem this rare should concern everyone. ... Americans have a right to understand the full scope of the administration's actions," said Democracy Forward Senior Oversight Counsel Dan McGrath.

What they're saying: Webb County election administrator Jose Castillo said he's not seen requests like these before, and he received another more recent request from HSI since those shown in the records request.

• "There's nothing there. But I get it, you've got to do your job," Castillo said. "To me, they could use their resources for something else that's more useful."
• Castillo said he's now directing HSI to request voter data through a public records request. Voter data is public information in Texas.
• In four years, Castillo said he's seen two cases of a noncitizen voting out of more than 150,000 voters.

The other side: "While ICE Homeland Security Investigations is not able to comment on any active investigations, HSI is actively rooting out and investigating election fraud wherever it can be found," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.

• "We have repeatedly demonstrated that illegal aliens can and do vote in our elections. Under President Trump, HSI is committed to restoring integrity to our election systems and ensuring that American citizens and only American citizens are electing American leaders."

Zoom in: Heather Honey, an election integrity activist who became prominent challenging the 2020 election results in Pennsylvania and Arizona, has also been in direct contact with the Texas Secretary of State's general counsel, according to emails in the records request.

• On March 25, Honey, who is Department of Homeland Security's deputy assistant secretary for election integrity, also had a virtual meeting with the Texas general counsel and six staff members at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, according to the email chain.
• "DHS routinely works with our state and local partners including the state of Texas. In this case, we wanted to discuss how DHS could best support the SOS office and collaborate on shared goals," Honey said in an emailed response to questions.
• Honey did not say how many election offices she's been in contact with directly, but said the agency "has engaged with every state secretary or chief election official."

The Texas general counsel did not respond to a request for comment.

Zoom out: Trump signed an executive order in March 2025 that said the U.S. was currently failing to protect elections and enforce federal law. It included a specific reference to "prohibit[ing] non-citizens from registering to vote."

• DHS has also been tasked with investigating alleged voter fraud and promoting the use of the SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) database for local election officials to verify the citizenship status of people on the voter rolls.
• DHS General Counsel James Percival also released a memo this week asking ICE's Office of the Principal Legal Adviser to "ensure consequences" for non-citizen voting in deportation hearings "to the maximum extent allowed by law."