DHS secretary says agency found hundreds of thousands of questionable registrations, conditions grants on state security steps

The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security said at a public briefing that DHS has identified large numbers of potentially ineligible voter registrations and will press states to implement security measures before receiving federal reimbursement.

The secretary said DHS had identified "250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in just 4 states" (which he named as California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada) and cited a broader set of figures—278,000 noncitizen registrations and 400,000 deceased registrants across other states—derived from DHS's SAVE program and other roll reviews. He said 23 states were "proactively" working with the SAVE program; he also elsewhere said all 50 states were participating, a discrepancy he did not resolve during the briefing.

Why it matters: the secretary portrayed election security as a national-security priority and announced both operational and policy steps that could alter how states receive federal assistance. He said DHS will scrub voter records before and after the midterms, use FOIA requests to obtain records from noncooperative states, provide an updated election infrastructure plan through CISA within 30 days, and make certain security enhancements mandatory for states seeking federal reimbursement to run federal elections.

Details and claims from the briefing

- Noncitizen and deceased registrations: The secretary said DHS identified ‘‘250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in just 4 states’’ and also cited totals of 278,000 noncitizen registrations and 400,000 deceased registrants in other parts of his remarks. He described a process DHS is using to examine each flagged record: identify the individual, determine whether they voted, and where they voted. The secretary framed those numbers as DHS findings but did not provide documentation during the briefing.

- SAVE program and legal holds: The SAVE program (an identity-verification process the secretary described) was credited with finding 28,000 noncitizens on state rolls in 23 cooperative states. The secretary said "activist judges" have placed a hold on some uses of the program's outputs and that a pending appeal is limiting DHS's ability to use certain results immediately.

- Policy changes and conditions on federal funds: The secretary said DHS will condition reimbursement for states on implementation of security measures, saying states that refuse to secure elections would not receive federal reimbursements. He also said CISA and DHS cybersecurity teams would publish an updated election infrastructure plan within 30 days to guide states.

- Allegations about foreign intrusion and prior administration disclosures: The secretary alleged that foreign adversaries—including, he said, Iran—had accessed state voter files and attempted to compromise systems used by military voters. He also accused parts of the prior administration and some intelligence community elements of withholding information from presidents and Congress. Those allegations were presented by the secretary as assertions from DHS; the briefing did not include additional documentary evidence or corroborating testimony on those points.

- Enforcement and penalties: The secretary said DHS will pursue prosecutions where it finds illegal voting, referred to penalties "up to 5 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines," and said DHS would prioritize investigations and hold officials accountable if they fail to act on information provided by DHS. He also offered immigration-enforcement figures ("442,637 total deported last year in '25" and "403,294" so far in 2026, and a cited "total removals is 3,000,000") as part of broader remarks on law-enforcement activity.

On attribution and sourcing

All direct quotes and on-the-record claims in this article are attributed to the speaker identified in the briefing as the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Many of the numerical claims, technical assertions about machine vulnerabilities, and allegations about foreign intrusion and withheld intelligence were presented by the secretary during his remarks; the briefing did not include independent documentation or named corroborating sources. Where the secretary made legal or technical claims, this article reports them as the secretary's assertions rather than independently verified facts.

Next steps the secretary announced

- DHS/CISA will release an updated election infrastructure plan within 30 days. - DHS said it will file FOIA requests to obtain records from nonparticipating states and will scrub voter rolls before and after the election. - DHS said it would make certain security enhancements mandatory for states seeking federal reimbursement for election costs and would prioritize enforcement activity in nonparticipating jurisdictions.

The briefing ended when the secretary opened the floor to questions and took several audience queries before departing. The judicial hold he cited on parts of the SAVE program and his larger allegations about foreign intrusion and withheld intelligence were not resolved during the session and remain subject to further documentation or legal process.