Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is expected Friday to unveil a new round of election security enforcement measures, one day after The Post reported that federal officials had identified at least 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote in US federal elections.
Mullin is scheduled to discuss the Trump administration’s push to “secure American elections” at an 11 a.m. news conference, following President Trump’s prime-time address Thursday night on alleged weaknesses in the US voting system.
“Only Americans should be electing American leaders,” Mullin wrote in a post on X announcing the briefing.
During his speech, Trump confirmed The Post’s report about the 278,000 illegal voter registrations and warned that the final figure may be significantly higher.
“Since Democrat states refuse to share their voter files, the real number is actually much higher than that,” Trump said. “Yet, even this limited analysis found more than a quarter of a million foreigners illegally registered to vote.”
Trump said the striking figure comes from a DHS report that shows “just how vulnerable elections continue to be.”
The president also instructed DHS “to notify every state about non-citizens on their voter rolls and direct them to remove all ineligible voters from the lists immediately.”
The total is the highest ever publicly reported in US history, though a source familiar with the findings told The Post on Thursday that it is still unclear how many of those registered individuals, if any, may have cast illegal ballots.
Soon after The Post first reported Thursday that DHS had found 278,000 noncitizens on voter rolls, Fox News Digital reported that the department had sent letters Friday to officials in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Those letters reportedly warned state leaders about an estimated 256,000 noncitizens registered to vote across the four states, with most of them listed in California.
US law holds that it is illegal for non-citizens to vote in the United States, punishable by a year in jail and a fine — but ultimately states shoulder the burden to verify a voter’s eligibility.
The president used the information and other election-related revelations to help pitch action on the SAVE America Act — which would require proof of citizenship to vote and other election reforms, but has long lingered in Congress.
Republicans have repeatedly tried to jam the bill — considered Trump’s top legislative priority this year — through the Senate, but have consistently failed due to a Democratic filibuster.
Trump in his speech asked Americans to call on their lawmakers to pass the legislation.
It comes after the Department of Justice last week sent letters to elections officials across the country warning they “could be criminally prosecuted for aiding noncitizen voting” if such ballots are counted in an election.
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 was signed into law by Democratic former President Bill Clinton and criminalizes noncitizen voting.
