DHS Is Deporting Green Card Holders Who Were Registered to Vote at the DMV Without Knowing It, the Times Finds

The New York Times reported on Aug. 10, 2026 that DHS is intensively pursuing deportation of noncitizens on voter rolls, including people who say they registered inadvertently at motor vehicle agencies and never voted. Agents are reopening closed cases, customs officers have detained suspected registrants at border checkpoints, and green card applicants for citizenship have been placed in removal proceedings. Agents who normally work trafficking and drug cases have been reassigned to voter fraud work, and in June joined an FBI raid on a voter registration group in Ohio. Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed last month, without evidence, that 250,000 noncitizens were registered in four states.

Noncitizen registration is unlawful and rare; state audits repeatedly find it minimal. Removing discretion over intent means someone who signed a form they did not understand faces the same consequence as someone who knowingly voted, while the enforcement output lends apparent support to fraud claims the audits do not sustain.

A DHS spokesperson said ICE was investigating election fraud wherever found. Removal cases remain pending.