ICE has requested and obtained local voter data from election officials in Texas and North Carolina as part of a probe into alleged voter fraud.
ICE’s investigative arm requested the individual voter files this May and in November 2025, and has made similar requests since, Axios reports. The move appears to be the latest evidence of President Donald Trump’s long-running crusade against an exceedingly rare form of voter fraud turning into a multi-agency effort.
Emails shared with Axios by Democracy Forward, a legal organization that investigates potential abuses of government power, show that records on specific voters were turned over to Homeland Security Investigations from Webb County in Texas and Forsyth County in North Carolina.
“There’s nothing there. But I get it, you’ve got to do your job,” Jose Castillo, the election administrator in Webb County, was quoted telling the news outlet. “To me, they could use their resources for something else that’s more useful.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed that non-citizen voting cost him the election in 2020, and the popular vote in 2016. The move comes ahead of the November midterms, which polling indicates may not go well for Republicans.
There has been no evidence uncovered so far to support Trump’s claims, and between 1982 and 2025 only 99 non-citizens have been found to have committed electoral fraud, according to the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.
Democracy Forward’s Senior Oversight Counsel Dan McGrath told Axios the moves by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations agents were of great concern.
“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,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security told Axios that “HSI is actively rooting out and investigating election fraud wherever it can be found.”
“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,” the DHS statement continued.
DHS, the White House, and Democracy Forward did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
