A Biden-appointed federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to halt key parts of its noncitizen-voter investigation in nine states — just days before the November 3 midterms.
The preliminary injunction targets election-related field operations and interviews when federal agents know, suspect or reasonably should suspect that a person is a U.S. citizen. It does not declare every investigation of unlawful noncitizen voting illegal.
That distinction matters. So does the timing.
Homeland Security reiterated its position Thursday after a new voter-fraud charge was announced in New York:
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued the order Wednesday in California Nurses Association v. Mullin. The covered states are California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.
The court’s order says DHS launched its “Unlawful Voter Initiative” in August and later directed a surge of field investigations across those nine states. The judge found that plaintiffs were likely to succeed on a Voting Rights Act claim involving intimidation of citizens engaged in voter assistance and mobilization.
The order focuses on the government’s targeting process and field tactics. It says the initial lists were assembled from state, local, public and commercial data, then reviewed under tight time limits before some people were approached by investigators.
The court did not rule that federal officials must ignore suspected illegal voting. It temporarily restricted specific operations that could sweep citizens into field interviews while the broader case proceeds.
The ruling landed in the same week that the Justice Department announced charges against 28 foreign nationals in California for alleged election crimes.
According to the Justice Department, all 28 defendants are lawful permanent residents rather than U.S. citizens. Prosecutors allege that many falsely claimed citizenship when registering and that several cast ballots in federal elections; every defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The California operation produced 28 criminal cases across all four federal districts in the state. Eleven defendants were arrested October 19, while the rest were charged through complaints or other court filings and expected to proceed through normal federal process.
The alleged conduct ranges from fraudulent voter registration to casting ballots and making false statements during the naturalization process. Prosecutors say California had received a federal list before ballots were counted but declined to set aside the identified mail ballots while citizenship status was reviewed.
Those allegations remain to be tested in court. Still, the charging documents provide concrete examples of the exact conduct the administration says its election-integrity effort was designed to uncover.
DHS also shared a statement from California federal prosecutor Bill Essayli explaining why the administration views even one unlawful ballot as a constitutional injury to lawful voters:
A separate federal complaint in New York announced Thursday accuses a German national and lawful permanent resident of knowingly voting in an election for federal office. That charge is also an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent.
The charges do not validate every entry in a government database. They do establish that prosecutors have identified specific alleged cases of unlawful noncitizen registration and voting that warrant investigation and adjudication.
DHS says its preliminary California universe included as many as 190,832 records requiring manual review, while roughly 20,000 names were later referenced in the Justice Department’s California litigation. The department publicly explained that those figures represented different stages of review, not a final finding that every person had voted illegally.
BREAKING: A federal judge just blocked DHS from many of its checks on suspected noncitizen voters in nine states.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez Olguin issued the injunction October 21, reportedly over flawed voter lists.
California and Georgia are among the states… pic.twitter.com/21SnbCbPMj
— Gunther Eagleman(@GuntherEagleman) October 22, 2026
The injunction was stayed until 5 p.m. Pacific on Friday to give the administration time to appeal. Unless a higher court intervenes, the restrictions are scheduled to remain in place through the close of polls on Election Day.
Americans should not have to choose between protecting lawful voters from intimidation and protecting their ballots from dilution. A competent government should be capable of doing both.
But with federal charges already on the books and the midterms approaching fast, shutting down major investigative tools before the facts are fully tested is a decision every voter deserves to see.
The post Biden-Appointed Judge Blocks Key Trump Noncitizen-Voter Operations Before Midterms appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.
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[H/T 100PercentFedUp]
