DOJ Seeks a TRO in United States v. California With HSI and USCIS Declarations on the List of Just Over 20,000 Voters

The Justice Department filed an ex parte application for a temporary restraining order and an order to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not issue in United States v. California, No. 2:26-cv-12025 (filing date 10/19/26, ECF 22-2). The memorandum asks the court to grant relief by November 3, 2026 (the requested-ruling deadline, before the end of voting) ordering California to set aside vote-by-mail ballots of voters on the federal list. It says DHS components narrowed a preliminary list of over 175,000 potential noncitizen voters to the final list. It says that “Just this morning” the United States “charged dozens” of noncitizens, and that “Every single one” of those charged is on the list; that case is 2026-10-19–operation-protect-the-vote-28-lprs-charged-11-arrested-doj-says-all-on-20000-list.

Eric McLoughlin, HSI Assistant Director for the Cyber and Operational Technology section, declares that his office “received what appeared to be the California voter roster” and that he believes the file reflects the rolls “as of August 2025” (the file’s as-of date), without naming who supplied the roster. On October 13, 2026 (delivery date) he helped deliver to DOJ a list of “just over 20,000 individuals” HSI believes are registered, were sent a mail ballot and are noncitizens; an HSI agent took it to the Los Angeles County registrar on “an encrypted hard drive.” A footnote says USCIS flagged “approximately 189 records with minor data discrepancies” on that list. Nicolas Bartell, Associate Director of the USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS), submitted his declaration to “outline how USCIS identifies potential noncitizens” on voter rolls. He says the process is “distinct from the Systematic Alien Verification for” Entitlements (SAVE) program, enhances voter data through “a reliable third-party data analytics” and investigative platform that he does not name, and screens matches against Department of State and Social Security data. He says FDNS received the rolls from HSI “On or around May 8, 2026” (receipt date) and that USCIS has a further “separate batch of more than 17,000” records under review.

Exhibit A is LA County Counsel’s letter of October 15, 2026 (letter date). It says the DOJ letter came with “a USB flash drive” and “a sticky note with a handwritten password”; that the file held “20,000+ individuals” across the State and was “not a distinct list” for the county; and that the letter “does not provide any information on how the Government compiled the list.” Exhibit B, Secretary of State Weber’s letter, recalls the July 16, 2026 DHS letter alleging “over 190,000” noncitizen registrants and calls the new list “a fraction of Secretary Mullin’s initial allegation.” Earlier steps: 2026-10-13–doj-letters-give-california-48-hours-on-likely-noncitizen-list-demand-la-county-segregate-ballots, 2026-10-15–doj-sues-california-weber-la-county-logan-cd-cal-2-26-cv-12025-block-tabulating-ballots-of-20000-flagged-voters, 2026-10-16–calif-and-la-county-oppose-doj-related-case-notice-two-civil-rights-coalitions-move-to-intervene-us-v-california, 2026-10-16–doj-mccotter-letter-to-la-county-counsel-tabulating-flagged-ballots-risks-aiding-and-abetting-federal-crime. Related: 2026-07-16–dhs-mullin-writes-california-up-to-190832-noncitizens-may-be-registered; 2026-09-14–whistleblower-disclosure-uscis-fdns-unlawful-voter-initiative-state-voter-sites-12-minute-quota.