A report by the nonprofit watchdog group Democracy Defenders Fund, as reported by The New York Times, suggests that Homeland Security investigators may have violated state laws during a voter-fraud investigation. The report, based on a whistleblower’s claims, indicates that agents involved in the Unlawful Voter Initiative were trained to access voter histories using data from multiple internal and external databases, even though some states restrict access to actual voter records. This practice has raised concerns about the legality and ethics of the investigation. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Senator Alex Padilla of California were given a copy of the report and have since sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. They demanded an immediate halt to the investigation and requested answers to more than a dozen questions about its scope and legality. Schumer claimed the probe is "just the latest example of how far Donald Trump will go to interfere in our elections," suggesting that federal law enforcement resources were being misused. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but a statement to The New York Times denied any wrongdoing and defended the agency's efforts to uncover alleged voter fraud. The statement warned non-citizens: "We will find you, arrest you, and you will face the consequences — including criminal charges and deportation." The report also noted that agents were trained to use alien identification numbers, which are assigned to non-citizens and remain in records even after they become eligible to vote. This practice could potentially flag naturalized citizens as unlawful voters. The controversy emerged amid a July 16 speech by former President Donald Trump, in which he highlighted alleged election fraud. The White House released a DHS document claiming to have found more than 250,000 non-citizens registered to vote in several states. However, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill attributed this to a "serious software error" that affected about 6,600 non-citizens between June 2023 and June 2024, with fewer than 400 of them voting. Trump later claimed, without evidence, that officials had "caught thousands of votes in New Jersey where illegal aliens were allowed to vote," according to Politifact. Independent audits and research by election officials and nonpartisan organizations have shown that illegal voting by non-citizens is "extremely rare," according to the Migration Policy Institute. A conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, maintains an online database of election fraud cases, which lists 25 examples between 2003 and 2023, including eight from the 2022 midterm elections. These findings suggest that while election integrity is a serious concern, the scale of non-citizen voting fraud is vastly overstated in some political narratives.