{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-leads-congressional-response-to-bombshell-dhs-whistleblower-disclosure-demands-trump-administration-stop-sham-unlawful-voter-investigation/", "WATCH: Padilla Leads Congressional Response to Bombshell DHS Whistleblower Disclosure, Demands Trump Administration Stop\u00a0Sham\u00a0\u201cUnlawful Voter\u201d\u00a0Investigation", "2026-09-14", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "New report reveals federal officers told to impersonate voters to access state voter websites, use unreliable \u201cmagic\u201d data in effort to justify Trump Administration\u2019s baseless voter fraud claims and undermine elections\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration with jurisdiction over federal elections and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee\u2019s Immigration Subcommittee, called for immediate action and transparency from the Trump Administration following a bombshell whistleblower disclosure he received last week alleging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is directing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) immigration officers to violate state laws as a part of its \u201cUnlawful Voter Initiative,\u201d an effort aimed at manufacturing evidence for President Trump\u2019s unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud.\n\nThe disclosure, which was addressed to Padilla and made public today, details allegations that USCIS immigration officers have been directed to stop their regular national security and anti-fraud work, misrepresent themselves to access sensitive voter information, and rush to create potentially unreliable law enforcement records targeting American citizens in many cases.\n\nKey excerpts:\n\nPadilla laid out the whistleblower\u2019s claims and warned that USCIS officers have been directed to find evidence of voter fraud, ultimately diverting agency resources:\n\n\u201cThey were directed to stop their national security screenings. They were directed to stop all the things that this Administration claims it cares about and instead go on a wild goose chase to find or manufacture evidence for the president\u2019s conspiracy theories of widespread voter fraud. This, without question, is a terrible waste and misuse of agency resources. But, colleagues, it is actually so much more worse than that.\u201d\n\nOn the disclosure\u2019s claim that USCIS officers misrepresent themselves to access sensitive and private voter data, as directed by agency officials:\n\n\u201cOfficers are being told to attest under penalty of law that they are the voter or the voter\u2019s representative. But on the websites, like the one of my home state of California, officers are being told to misrepresent themselves and enter voter-sensitive information like Social Security or driver\u2019s license numbers. When USCIS officers expressed concerns with these practices, they have been told by agency leadership to just go ahead, that they won\u2019t be, quote, \u2018personally liable,\u2019 end quote. Think about that for a second. If what the department is doing and if what these officers are being told to do was legal, it begs the question: Why would they need to be reassured by agency lawyers that they won\u2019t be held personally liable?\u201d\n\nOn claims that DHS and USCIS leadership are forcing officers to create unreliable records against voters they believe are not eligible to vote by using \u201csupplemental magic\u201d:\n\n\u201cUSCIS also admit that their data is unreliable, complex, and will have multiple ID numbers for various individuals, but nevertheless, officers are told to generate federal law enforcement records against them, even if they suspect that they\u2019re relying on inaccurate or incomplete information. It\u2019s already clear that this \u2018Unlawful Voter Initiative\u2019 is inaccurate, not to mention, likely illegal. But to make matters worse, it\u2019s also been rushed, and it\u2019s reckless. Because rank-and-file USCIS officers are given reckless quotas to review 40 people per day. Do the math. That\u2019s five people per hour, or 12 minutes per individual.\u201d\n\nPadilla on the dangerous consequences impacts of DHS and USCIS\u2019s unlawful activities in the \u201cUnlawful Voter Initiative\u201d:\n\n\u201cSaying that this is dangerous for our democracy is a huge understatement. This is more than a reckless attempt to prove Donald Trump\u2019s election denial,\u201d concluded Senator Padilla. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just about voting. This could lead to unwanted secondary screening at airports, consequences for immigration benefits, referrals to HSI or the FBI for criminal investigation, no clear recourse to undo the consequences of an erroneous federal law enforcement record being created. There\u2019s also the danger that Donald Trump will use false numbers of supposed votes cast by noncitizens to threaten to prosecute state and elections officials that he doesn\u2019t like. The president and his allies could even try using the unreliable results of this \u2018Unlawful Voter Initiative\u2019 to undermine and challenge election results themselves.\u201d\n\nPadilla concluded by reminding DHS leaders that federal whistleblowers are protected by law:\n\n\u201cAnd I would remind the department, and USCIS, that whistleblowers to Congress are protected by federal law. Let me repeat: Whistleblowers to Congress are protected by federal law. This individual will remain anonymous, and any attempt at retaliation is illegal and wrong.\u201d\n\nAs Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee and California\u2019s former Secretary of State and chief election officer, Padilla has championed election security and voting rights. Last month, Padilla led 27 of his Senate colleagues in demanding the Trump Administration stop their illegal voter roll purges before election day. In June, Padilla joined Schumer in launching the first-ever Senate Election Observer Program to protect the 2026 midterms and maintain election integrity nationwide. The Task Force will continue meeting over the coming months to ensure that every American has fair access to the ballot box this November. Padilla also convened a Rules Committee Democrats and Senate Democrats\u2019 Election Protection Task Force spotlight forum focused on state and local responses to combat efforts by the Trump Administration to undermine election administration in the upcoming midterm elections.\n\nVideo of Padilla\u2019s remarks is available here.\n\nFull transcript of Padilla\u2019s remarks is available below:\n\nAs our colleagues know, I serve as ranking member of the Rules Committee, which oversees federal elections. I also serve on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration, and I referenced this because last week, I received a protected disclosure from an anonymous federal whistleblower.\n\nAt a time when many Americans feel discouraged by the Trump administration\u2019s unprecedented chaos and corruption, it is heartening to see a federal government employee with the integrity and the courage to expose potential illegal activity and abuse of power.\n\nToday, Leader Schumer and I made the full disclosure public, and I want to go over some of these highlights, which are incredibly disturbing. I know they\u2019re disturbing to me, and I think they should be disturbing to every member of this chamber.\n\nFirst, leadership at the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have ordered hundreds of employees in USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security Division to stop doing the jobs that they were hired and trained to do and instead watch a short training video and immediately turn their time and attention to something called the, quote, \u201cUnlawful Voter Initiative,\u201d quote.\n\nThey were directed to stop their anti-fraud work, right? This administration makes a lot of claims about going after fraud. They were directed to stop their national security screenings. They were directed to stop all the things that this administration claims it cares about and instead go on a wild goose chase to find or manufacture evidence for the president\u2019s conspiracy theories of widespread voter fraud.\n\nThis, without question, is a terrible waste and misuse of agency resources. But, colleagues, it is actually so much more worse than that.\n\nThe whistleblower disclosure also includes compelling claims that USCIS officers are being directed to lie and to misrepresent themselves in order to search voters\u2019 sensitive personal information on state election officials\u2019 websites.\n\nLet me say that again. Federal officers are being told by headquarters to lie or to misrepresent themselves in order to access state voter data. It is a clear violation of state laws. And these violations have likely occurred thousands and thousands of times on some state websites.\n\nOfficers are being told to attest under penalty of law that they are the voter or the voter\u2019s representative. But on the websites, like the one of my home state of California, officers are being told to misrepresent themselves and enter voter-sensitive information like Social Security or driver\u2019s license numbers.\n\nWhen USCIS officers expressed concerns with these practices, they have been told by agency leadership to just go ahead, that they won\u2019t be, quote, \u201cpersonally liable,\u201d end quote.\n\nThink about that for a second. If what the department is doing and if what these officers are being told to do was legal, it begs the question: Why would they need to be reassured by agency lawyers that they won\u2019t be held personally liable?\n\nThe whistleblower disclosure also reveals that DHS is using their own unreliable data to target people for investigation. That\u2019s right, data that the department and agencies already acknowledge is unreliable.\n\nAgency leadership is then forcing USCIS officers to create federal law enforcement records against people, many of them United States citizens, even though they have doubts about the accuracy of the data.\n\nSo let\u2019s take a step back. Why are they doing this? Well, the Trump administration has tried and failed to force states to hand over these voter rolls. President Trump tried in his first term through a sham commission, which failed, and now he\u2019s weaponized the federal government to try to accomplish it here in the second term.\n\nBut guess what? They\u2019ve been taken to court, and they have lost in court over 30 times. States represented by Democrats and Republicans have said no.\n\nSo the proverbial front door is locked. As much as Trump wants access to voter data, the front door is locked. And so now they\u2019re trying to break in a back door.\n\nThey\u2019re using something called, quote, \u201csupplemental magic,\u201d end quote. That\u2019s right. In the materials that have been uncovered, they\u2019re using the supplemental magic to create lists of people that they think are not eligible to vote.\n\nRemember, the agency has already said they know that data is unreliable. And so, frankly, this disclosure raises a lot of questions. Why is this initiative happening now? What are the potentially hundreds of thousands of people being investigated? Who are they, and what the heck is \u201csupplemental magic\u201d?\n\nWe need answers. This Senate Congress deserves answers. The American people deserve answers.\n\nAgency training materials for this initiative say, quote, \u201craw data includes a lot of U.S. citizens,\u201d end quote.\n\nLet me repeat that. The training materials acknowledge that the data includes a lot of U.S. citizens. So why would you target them when you\u2019re looking for noncitizen voters?\n\nUSCIS also admit that their data is unreliable, complex, and will have multiple ID numbers for various individuals, but nevertheless, officers are told to generate federal law enforcement records against them, even if they suspect that they\u2019re relying on inaccurate or incomplete information.\n\nIt\u2019s already clear that this unlawful voter initiative is inaccurate, not to mention likely illegal. But to make matters worse, it\u2019s also been rushed, and it\u2019s reckless because rank-and-file USCIS officers are given reckless quotas to review 40 people per day.\n\nDo the math. That\u2019s five people per hour, or 12 minutes per individual. Colleagues, you know as well as I. Twelve minutes to review unreliable data in complex immigration history is not an adequate amount of time to conduct a thorough investigation, because these aren\u2019t that. These are sham investigations.\n\nWe all know that voting by noncitizens is illegal. That\u2019s already the law. You know that. I know that.\n\nWe, on study after study, report after report, audit after audit, it is extremely, extremely rare. Our current safeguards are working.\n\nThis unlawful voter initiative does not appear to be a legitimate effort, and we should not take anything that comes out of it with face value. Now, just 12 minutes for an investigation, a lot of U.S. citizens in the unreliable magic data, and potentially thousands of violations of state and federal privacy laws.\n\nMadam President, saying that this is dangerous for our democracy is a huge understatement. This is more than a reckless attempt to prove Donald Trump\u2019s election denial talking points. Like the ones he used in the White House speech this past July.\n\nDiversion of federal law enforcement to break laws for political purposes is a clear abuse of power, and there\u2019s a very real danger that thousands of naturalized U.S. citizens and legal residents will potentially face negative consequences because of this sham investigation.\n\nThis isn\u2019t just about voting. This could lead to unwanted secondary screening at airports, consequences for immigration benefits, referrals to HSI or the FBI for criminal investigation, and no clear recourse to undo the consequences of an erroneous federal law enforcement record being created after a quick 12-minute review.\n\nThere\u2019s also the danger that Donald Trump will use false numbers of supposed votes cast by noncitizens to threaten to prosecute state and elections officials that he doesn\u2019t like.\n\nThe president and his allies could even try using the unreliable results of this unlawful voter initiative to undermine and challenge election results themselves. That\u2019s right. January 6th was not the end of this.\n\nSo today, Senator Schumer and I sent this whistleblower\u2019s disclosure regarding the so-called unlawful voter initiative to Secretary Mullin and USCIS Director Edlow.\n\nWe\u2019re demanding an immediate halt to these activities. We\u2019re demanding transparency for DHS, and we\u2019re demanding the removal of unreliable law enforcement records, many of which are against United States citizens.\n\nWe will have more to say about this in the coming days. And I would remind the department, and USCIS, that whistleblowers to Congress are protected by federal law.\n\nLet me repeat: Whistleblowers to Congress are protected by federal law.\n\nThis individual will remain anonymous, and any attempt at retaliation is illegal and wrong.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-15T09:50:21Z", "2026-09-15T09:52:05Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/watch-padilla-leads-congressional-response-to-bombshell-dhs-whistleblower-disclosure-demands-trump-administration-stop-sham-unlawful-voter-investigation/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7887161336839199, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}