Homeland Security investigators were diverted from cases involving child exploitation, drug trafficking, human trafficking and money laundering to investigate suspected noncitizen voting as the Trump administration intensified efforts to find evidence of election fraud, according to a sprawling ProPublica investigation.
Starting in early 2025, Homeland Security Investigations reassigned more than 6,000 agents to immigration enforcement before directing additional resources toward noncitizen voting. By January 2026, agents were investigating thousands of voting-related leads, including 15,000 assigned to a financial crimes unit that was instructed to prioritize them over money laundering and fraud cases.
The shift affected ongoing criminal investigations as ProPublica found, for example, that an Ohio HSI agent leading a multistate child sexual abuse investigation was reassigned in February to pursue dozens of suspected noncitizen voters, delaying work on the other case for months.
Former HSI manager Eric Balliet said criminal networks can adapt when investigators are pulled away, warning that "people get killed and kidnapped."
The voting investigations, however, have produced comparatively few cases as ProPublica reveals. The study found that fewer than 150 alleged noncitizen voters were referred for prosecution between January 2025 and May 2026, with 41 charged with voting illegally or other election-related crimes.
In Minnesota, investigators subpoenaed records for about 130 people but referred only one for prosecution. A senior federal prosecutor described the HSI task force there as "disjointed and disorganized."
CNN reported last week that agents frequently pursued leads that turned out to involve incorrect identities, people who were not registered or individuals who had never voted. In one Ohio inquiry, an investigator acknowledged after confusion over a birth date: "Oops! Turns out the voter is actually his father."
DHS has defended the investigations, saying HSI is "actively rooting out and investigating election fraud" and denying that the agency has neglected its traditional mission.
The American Immigration Council, citing its analysis of the conservative Heritage Foundation's election-fraud database, said last week that it identified 89 proven cases of noncitizen voting since 2000, representing less than 0.0001% of votes cast in any presidential election during that period.
.jpeg?w=600)
