Federal law tells election officials in many parts of the country to print ballots in more than one language. Trump's Department of Homeland Security has a list of those places — and officials passed it around next to a checklist for prosecuting voters.

NPR reported on September 18 that DHS personnel shared a 78-page document listing counties and states that offer election materials and ballots in languages other than English. It was attached alongside a Justice Department "criminal checklist outlining requirements for prosecution of voter-related charges."

The email was sent last December. It came out after the Democratic National Committee sued over a public records request.

Who got it

The email, dated December 19, went from a DHS border policy acting director — whose name is blacked out — to Rob Law, DHS's undersecretary for strategy, policy and plans. Other officials were copied, according to NPR and the Georgia Recorder, including Heather Honey, a former election activist who now leads the Trump administration's hunt for noncitizen voters as DHS's deputy assistant secretary for election integrity.

The list covered places across the country. In Georgia, it named Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb counties, the Recorder reported. It also named Denver, where close to a third of residents are Hispanic or Latino.

Much of the email is redacted. NPR reported that "nothing in the document alludes to enforcement activity at the locations mentioned," and DHS says it "is not planning operations targeting polling locations." In court, DHS described the email as a "subordinate sharing initial thoughts and opinions with leadership."

But DHS itself decided the email was a match for the DNC's records request — a request about whether the government planned to send federal agents or troops to polling places, drop boxes and election offices.

"The logical inference that I think anyone would make is that they are thinking about prosecution of federal election crimes in jurisdictions where elections are conducted in a language other than English," Dan Freeman, the DNC's litigation director and a former Justice Department voting attorney, told NPR.

Printing ballots in Spanish isn't a crime. It's the law.

Under the Voting Rights Act, when more than 5% of a jurisdiction's voting-age citizens mainly speak a language other than English, election officials have to provide materials in that language, NPR noted. The Recorder reported that the law also kicks in when 10,000 or more residents who speak a language lack English proficiency.

Gwinnett County, where more than 38% of residents speak a language other than English at home, has been required to provide ballots in Spanish since 2016.

Only U.S. citizens can vote. The point of these ballots is to reach citizens: advocates told the Recorder some naturalized citizens may struggle to understand a ballot written in English.

DHS's response didn't address that. "Aliens who illegally vote in U.S. elections should not be able to use a purported lack of knowledge of the English language as an excuse to avoid prosecution," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement, the Recorder reported.

The fraud they're hunting is almost nonexistent

Georgia checked. A 2024 audit by Georgia's Republican secretary of state found 20 noncitizens on the state's voter rolls out of 8.2 million registered voters, the Recorder reported. Only nine had ever cast a ballot.

When the administration opened the door to armed ICE agents at polling places, the Heritage Foundation's own database could only find about 100 cases of noncitizen voting since 2000.

Why this list lands differently right now

On its own, a list of multilingual counties is public information. But it didn't turn up in a quiet moment:

• Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said this month that ICE agents could serve warrants at polling places, NPR reported.
• Asked in May about agents at the polls, President Trump said he'd do "anything necessary" to make sure elections are "honest."
• A whistleblower says DHS had officers pose as voters to search state voting records.
• Civil rights groups have now filed a second lawsuit to keep federal officers away from the polls.

And the fear is already working. About 40% of voters now think it's likely ICE agents will be at voting locations in their area, according to a University of California San Diego poll NPR cited. Voters of color were significantly more likely than white voters to fear being questioned by immigration agents even though they are citizens.

"What they're trying to do is put it out there to discourage people from voting, to create an atmosphere of fear," said Paul López, Denver's top election official.

What we know

Trump's Homeland Security Department circulated a 78-page list of places that offer ballots in languages other than English — which federal law requires many of them to do — attached alongside a Justice Department checklist for prosecuting voter-related crimes. DHS says it isn't planning operations at polling places, but it treated the email as relevant to a records request about federal agents at the polls, while its secretary says ICE could serve warrants there. Georgia's own audit found nine noncitizens who had ever voted out of 8.2 million registered voters.

Sources

This post is based on reporting by NPR and the Georgia Recorder. Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images, via NPR.