ICE Asks DOJ for State Voter Registration Lists for an HSI 'Voter Fraud Initiative'; DOJ Civil Rights Division Gives a DHS Counterpart Access Six Days Later

Two letters in the administrative record of Common Cause v. DOJ (D.D.C., 1:26-cv-01352) show how state voter registration lists held by the Justice Department reached Homeland Security Investigations. The parties filed them in the Joint Appendix (ECF 45-7, filed July 2, 2026). The Joint Appendix index notes that the Defendants included them without conceding that the actions described are reviewable final agency actions.

March 6: ICE asks

On March 6, 2026, Todd M. Lyons, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director of ICE, wrote by email to Harmeet K. Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division (CRT-0003398). The letter states that “Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is undertaking a Voter Fraud Initiative to ensure the integrity of the electoral process within its authority.” It continues: “I formally request the Department of Justice provide HSI with the public Statewide Voter Registration Lists (SVRLs) in its possession.” It adds that “The information in the records provided to HSI will be vetted through Department of Homeland Security indices.” The letter states that it is a written request under subsection 552a(b)(7) of the Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. 552a.

March 12: DOJ replies and grants access

Six days later, on March 12, 2026, Eric V. Neff, Acting Chief of the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section, wrote to Lyons (CRT-0003399 to 0003400). The Joint Appendix’s index lists this letter as from Dhillon; the letter itself is signed by Neff. It records that “After DHS signed the appropriate DOJ-CRT Use Agreement on March 12, 2026, DOJ-CRT granted the appropriate DHS counterpart access to the data via DOJ-CRT’s secure file-sharing system, Justice Enterprise File Sharing (‘JEFS’).” It also confirms the understanding between the two departments that “DHS will return to DOJ-CRT the enriched data SVRLs,” which the Voting Section would then query through DHS’s SAVE system under a January 20, 2026 memorandum of understanding between the Civil Rights Division and USCIS. A footnote lists twelve states that sent publicly available lists to DOJ but declined to share their non-public lists: Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico and Wisconsin.

What the court later said

On October 9, 2026, Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan’s opinion cited both letters in describing the arrangement (ECF 51, pp. 12-13) and held that the Defendants “cannot rely on that routine use for mass disclosures to ICE with no indication whatsoever that there has been a violation of immigration law” (p. 65). See 2026-10-09–sooknanan-vacates-doj-voter-list-maintenance-policy.

What the record does not establish

• Which DHS counterpart received access, and how many states’ lists were transferred. The letters do not say.
• The terms of the Use Agreement DHS signed on March 12, including any limit on retention or use. It is not in the pages read.
• What DHS “enriched” the lists with, what it returned to DOJ, and whether the return happened. The letter states the understanding; the record read shows no performance.
• Whether HSI still holds or uses the lists. Nothing in the record read, dated after October 9, addresses it.
• The Lyons letter, beyond the Privacy Act provision it invokes, names no election-law statute and no specific violation. That is a statement about the letter’s text, not about what HSI had in mind.

Related

• 2026-05-19–common-cause-partial-summary-judgment-doj-national-voter-database
• 2026-09-01–dhs-hsi-voter-fraud-surge-nine-states-midterms