By Jill McLaughlin

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against California on Oct. 15 over its voter list after finding more than 20,000 “likely noncitizens” registered to vote in the state, prosecutors announced.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli in Los Angeles said the DOJ gave the state 48 hours to review the names of the suspected noncitizens registered to vote who were mailed live ballots and determine whether citizens were on the list.

The federal government asked that if California was not able to independently confirm the citizenship of the voters registered, the state set aside ballots received until citizenship could be confirmed.

“California refused,” Essayli posted on X.

The DOJ asked the court for an emergency order requiring California to sequester ballots returned by the suspected noncitizens and verify their citizenship status, Essayli said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the lawsuit is unfounded and represents an attempt by President Donald Trump to disenfranchise voters.

“This is a sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters just three weeks before Election Day,” Newsom said in a statement.

Newsom called the federal request unlawful.

“A totally unprecedented request that should scare the hell out of every American,” he said.

In California, anyone who applies for a driver’s license, identification card, or change of address and who indicates he is eligible to vote is automatically registered to vote unless he chooses to opt out.

Homeland Security Investigations said it analyzed publicly available voter registration records to identify whether noncitizens could be registered to vote, cast ballots, or receive election-related mail.

The court complaint alleges that Homeland Security Investigations found thousands of likely noncitizens registered to vote in the state who would automatically receive ballots in the mail.

A man drops his ballot into a ballot box at the Orange County Registrar in Santa Ana, Calif., on March 5, 2024. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Essayli said the lawsuit isn’t political or controversial but is a way to ensure that noncitizens are not allowed to break the law by voting in a federal election.

“We will not allow California to dilute the votes of American citizens,” Essayli said.

All registered California voters are mailed a vote-by-mail ballot before an election without notification that noncitizens are prohibited from voting in federal elections, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said California was given two days to complete its review of the 20,000 suspected noncitizens by noon on Oct. 15, and California “failed to do so.”

An election worker moves mail-in ballots to be organized for tabulation at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center during California’s state primary election in the City of Industry, Calif., on June 2, 2026. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Instead, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder and County Clerk announced in a press release that its office had rejected an encrypted thumb drive given to them by a federal agent that identified the possible noncitizen voters.

Dean Logan, who oversees that office, said it had not accessed the thumb drive because it “would conflict with established data privacy and information security protocols.”

“We do not consider the device a secure medium,” Logan said in a statement on Oct. 14. “Maintaining accurate voter registration records is a fundamental responsibility of our office. Federal and state laws are clear on how voter eligibility is established—and any action to remove a voter from eligibility must be based on verifiable information, not assertions of unconfirmed data matching.”

Logan said he was consulting with the California secretary of state and the attorney general’s office to decide what to do next.

Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks alongside Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin during a news conference at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building in Washington on Sept. 30, 2026. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Federal authorities have recently made several arrests of people who allegedly voted illegally in federal elections as noncitizens.

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said California’s alleged illegal voters were concerning.

“If found responsible in a court of law, the State of California will have seriously undermined confidence in our electoral system and violated laws that protect our nation’s representative system of government,” Blanche said in a statement.

The DOJ asked the court to prevent California from tabulating vote-by-mail ballots from suspected noncitizens in the upcoming midterm elections until citizenship can be verified.