DOJ Press Release on California Suit Quotes DHS Secretary Mullin Calling the 20,000-Name Analysis "Preliminary" and the Review "Ongoing"

The Justice Department’s press release announcing the California complaint, filed the same day as the complaint, says the department filed “after determining that more than 20,000 people who are likely aliens are registered to vote in California”. The word in the release’s own lead sentence is “likely”.

The release quotes DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin on method and status: DHS and federal partners “reviewed publicly available California voter-registration files and compared relevant records with federal immigration data to identify alien registrants”, and “This preliminary analysis has identified a significant number of individuals in California who are likely noncitizens and appear to be registered to vote; the analysis and review remain ongoing.” The same release says HSI and its federal partners “used multiple data-enrichment and verification methods to assess whether the individuals identified were likely aliens”. The Central District of California posted a matching release.

This is the department’s own statement of the list’s status on the day it sued. Suit detail: 2026-10-15–doj-sues-california-weber-la-county-logan-cd-cal-2-26-cv-12025-block-tabulating-ballots-of-20000-flagged-voters; the following day’s letter: 2026-10-16–doj-mccotter-letter-to-la-county-counsel-tabulating-flagged-ballots-risks-aiding-and-abetting-federal-crime.