Hours after Border Patrol kills Minneapolis man, Bondi demands voter rolls to restore 'law and order'

On Jan. 25, 2026, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a three-page letter to 🦆Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz requesting the repeal of sanctuary policies, cooperation from all detention facilities with ICE, state records on Medicaid and food stamps for fraud investigations, and DOJ Civil Rights Division access to state voter rolls to confirm voter registration compliance with federal law. The letter stated You and your office must restore the rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota. The letter came during Operation Metro Surge, which deployed 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota and resulted in over 2,500 arrests. The DOJ was also investigating Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for allegedly impeding federal immigration enforcement through public statements.

U.S. District Judge DODavid O. Carter dismissed 🌴California's lawsuit on Jan. 15, 2026, in a 33-page ruling calling the government's request unprecedented and illegal. Carter wrote that the DOJ's request for sensitive information of Californians stands to have a chilling effect on American citizens like political minority groups and working-class immigrants who may consider not registering to vote or skip casting a ballot because they're worried about how their information will be used. The Clinton-appointed judge called the suit a telltale fishing expedition and wrote that even the federal government is not permitted to sue first, obtain discovery, and finalize its allegations later. He noted the Department of Justice seeks to use civil rights legislation which was enacted for an entirely different purpose to amass and retain an unprecedented amount of confidential voter data.

U.S. District Judge MKMustafa Kasubhai tentatively ruled to dismiss 🌲Oregon's lawsuit on Jan. 15, 2026, during oral arguments. The Biden-appointed judge stated I'm very cautious and doubtful that what you're asking for, which is an unredacted list, is actually going to give you the information that you need to establish a violation of voting laws. Oregon Secretary of State TRTobias Read responded that the federal government tried to abuse their power to force me to break my oath of office and hand over your private data. I stood up to them and said no. Now, the court sided with us. The tentative ruling was pending a written decision.

DHS confirmed on Sept. 11, 2025, that voter registration data collected by DOJ is being shared with the Department of Homeland Security as part of a broad push to remove noncitizens from the rolls. A DHS spokesperson stated This collaboration with the DOJ will lawfully and critically enable DHS to prevent illegal aliens from corrupting our republic's democratic process and further ensure the integrity of our elections nationwide. The data is run through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, which USCIS refashioned in spring 2025 to conduct bulk searches instead of one-name-at-a-time checks. The 🗽New York Times reported the administration plans to compare voter data to DHS databases to find registered voters listed as noncitizens.

On Nov. 18, 2025, ten Democratic secretaries of state from 🏔️Colorado, 🌴California, 🦆Minnesota, 🌶️New Mexico, 🌵Arizona, 🎰Nevada, 🦞Maine, 🍁Vermont, 🌲Oregon, and 🌲Washington sent a joint letter to Bondi and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem expressing immense concern with recent reporting that the Department of Justice has shared voter data with the Department of Homeland Security. The letter sought clarity on whether DOJ and DHS actively misled election officials regarding the uses of voter data. The officials alleged senior DOJ and DHS officials shared misleading and at times contradictory information during an Aug. meeting with senior election staff. Collectively, the ten states represent about 26% of all registered voters in the United States. The secretaries requested a response by Dec. 1, 2025.

The DOJ sued 23 states and Washington 🏛️D.C. for refusing to provide unredacted voter rolls. The first wave on Sept. 25, 2025, sued 🌴California, 🚗Michigan, 🦆Minnesota, 🗽New York, 🍁New Hampshire, and 🔔Pennsylvania. The second wave on Dec. 3, 2025, sued 🐔Delaware, 🦀Maryland, 🌶️New Mexico, ⚓Rhode Island, and 🍁Vermont. All states are led by Democrats or were lost by Trump in the 2020 election. Bondi argued she's authorized under the National Voter Registration Act, Help America Vote Act, and Civil Rights Act of 1960 to ensure that states have proper and effective voter registration and voter list maintenance programs. She stated Clean voter rolls are the foundation of free and fair elections. Every state has a responsibility to ensure that voter registration records are accurate, accessible, and secure — states that don't fulfill that obligation will see this Department of Justice in court.

🦆Minnesota Secretary of State SSSteve Simon declined the Jul. 2025 DOJ request, stating the department provided no legal basis for the demand and failed to explain how the data would be used, stored, or secured. He said This is not normal. This is a sweeping request for very personal, very private data on millions of Minnesota voters. Simon's office moved to dismiss the federal lawsuit on Dec. 23, 2025, with a hearing set for Mar. 2026. 🌴California Secretary of State Shirley Weber declined to provide the data, citing state privacy laws and offering redacted versions instead. The DOJ sought unredacted files for 23 million California voters including names, addresses, birthdates, driver's license numbers, and last four digits of Social Security numbers.

Noncitizen voting is extremely rare in U.S. elections. One study of the 2016 election placed the prevalence at 0.0001% of votes cast. Brennan Center research found incident rates between 0.0003% and 0.0025%. 🏎️Indiana Republican Secretary of State Diego Morales and 🏈Alabama Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen signed agreements with USCIS to access citizenship verification databases, demonstrating GOP cooperation with the administration's voter data collection efforts. Trump's Mar. 2025 executive order directed Bondi to seek information about suspected election crimes from state election officials and empowered her to potentially withhold grants and other funds from uncooperative states.