Justice Department Seeks Sanctions Over Analysis Challenging Its Noncitizen Voting Claims

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department on Sunday stood by the accuracy of a list containing more than 20,000 people it says are suspected noncitizens registered to vote in California. The department also asked a federal judge to consider whether an immigrant rights organization and its attorneys should be held in contempt after they released an analysis of the names.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg granted the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, known as CHIRLA, access to federal data concerning the 20,000 people the Trump administration has identified as alleged noncitizen voters in California. Boasberg, who sits in Washington, D.C., ordered the plaintiffs not to reveal any names from the list and limited their use of the data to arguments about their legal standing to challenge the administration’s actions.

In court filings submitted Saturday, attorneys for the immigrant rights group said their review found that more than 40% of the individuals listed did not appear in California’s voter file. Their analysis also identified 22 people who were likely naturalized U.S. citizens and indicated that thousands of other U.S. citizens may have been included.

The Justice Department argued in a filing Sunday that the group’s analysis was unrelated to its legal standing and therefore breached Boasberg’s order.

“The report’s political grandstanding about alleged inaccuracies that purportedly impact California voters generally, or comparisons between the government’s list and the full ‘California voter file,’ has no relevance to whether the particular plaintiffs in this case have standing,” the department wrote.

The filing further asked Boasberg to refer the issue to the Justice Department for an investigation into possible criminal contempt of court.

Alberto Lammers, a spokesman for the University of California, Los Angeles’ Voting Rights Project, which brought the case and conducted the data analysis for CHIRLA, said in an emailed statement: “Plaintiffs’ counsel and their experts fully complied with the Court’s orders.”

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In a separate case, the Justice Department on Sunday appealed a Friday night ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Trina L. Thompson. The San Francisco-based judge barred the department from ordering election offices to remove possible noncitizens from voter rolls, segregate their ballots or threaten legal action. The department has pointed out that Thompson issued the ruling before the federal government had an opportunity to submit its initial arguments.

Thompson scheduled a hearing on the appeal for Monday.

The case is among several legal defeats for the Trump administration in its effort to act on lists of alleged noncitizen voters. In California, a federal judge rejected the administration’s request to require election officials to separate ballots cast by those voters, warning that such an order so close to the election could “wreak havoc” on the state’s election. Two appellate judges later agreed.

California election officials have also said the list contains widespread errors and that they lack the time to complete the painstaking process legally required to remove voters from the rolls just days before an election. Voters attest that they are U.S. citizens when registering, and those who cast ballots while ineligible risk felony prosecution.

The administration maintains that it carefully assembled the list using California’s voter registration data and comparisons with federal citizenship records. The Justice Department has issued a series of subpoenas to California election offices and warned officials that knowingly allowing noncitizens to vote could result in criminal charges.