With fewer than 40 days to go until the midterms, Senate Democrats are demanding the head of the Department of Homeland Security “cease” actions they argue could be undermining elections and threatening constitutional protections.
In a letter shared first with MS NOW, 34 Senate Democrats accuse Homeland Security Sec. Markwayne Mullin of making moves that are “intentionally undermining Americans’ trust in the 2026 midterm elections and appear to purposefully disenfranchise eligible voters.”
“You have promoted the President’s conspiracy theories about our elections, pressured states to participate in illegal activities, and explicitly threatened to reduce grant funding and initiate criminal investigations for those states that do not comply with the Administration’s demands,” they write.
The letter, which was sent to DHS on Friday, is the latest in a series of warnings from congressional Democrats ahead of November’s vote.
In recent months, Senate and House Democrats alike have been gaming out how they would respond to an effort from the Trump administration to interfere in the elections.
Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan — the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — led the letter, which was signed by members from across the Democratic coalition, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
In a statement to MS NOW, a spokesperson for DHS rejected the notion the agency is trying to “exert more federal control over elections heading into the November midterms,” calling it “totally false.”
“DHS is fulfilling our obligation to protect election infrastructure under existing statutory authority so that our elections are fair, honest, and accurate,” they wrote. “Our message to aliens who vote in American elections is clear: we will find you, arrest you, and you will face the consequences — including criminal charges and deportation.”
In their letter, Democrats raise concerns about a series of recent actions at DHS, urging Mullin to reverse course.
They condemn Mullin for being “unwilling to publicly affirm” he will not deploy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection to the polls — a move that Democrats worry could scare off some voters from showing up to cast their ballot.
While DHS — as recently as this month — has said that ICE is “not planning operations targeting polling locations,” the agency has also said ICE “conducts intelligence-driven targeted enforcement, and if an active public safety threat endangered a polling location, they may be arrested as a result of that targeted enforcement action.”
The Democrats also criticize the administration’s efforts — which the Supreme Court allowed to proceed in a decision late last week — to use a federal database to hunt for alleged “noncitizens” on the voter rolls, openly questioning what the administration intends to do with the voter roll information they are collecting from states and warning that the database they are using to cross check who is a citizen has “accuracy issues.”
In particular, they dismiss Mullin’s claim from July that there are roughly 250,000 potential non-citizens being registered to vote across just four states. (DHS has not been able to back up this claim.)
In the letter, the Democrats call on Mullin to “provide us with all information underpinning the allegations.”
The senators also sound the alarm about allegations that the Federal Emergency Management Agency — FEMA — is withholding anti-terrorism grants from states that have not complied with the administration’s new election policies.
Democratic states and officials have sued the Trump administration over the withheld funding. In response, a FEMA spokesperson called the changes “critical, common-sense steps” to preserve “election integrity.”
In their letter, the Democratic senators warn that “DHS’ continued interference with FEMA’s grants puts FEMA’s mission at risk, slows down the administration of grants, and ultimately hurts communities.”
They urge Mullin to “release all withheld funds to the states without further delay.”
Finally, the lawmakers sound the alarm about a whistleblower report regarding DHS’ “Unlawful Voter Initiative.”
According to the whistleblower, DHS personnel — currently being deployed to go through state voter rolls to find purported unlawfully registered voters — may be breaking state laws by making “false attestations that they are a voter or are acting with a voter’s express authorization in order to access sensitive voter data.”
In the letter, the Democrats warn that if this is true, “this is just another alarming effort by the Department to use data that USCIS materials admit may be inaccurate, coupled with questionable means to potentially disenfranchise voters.”
They ask Mullin to provide more information about the “Unlawful Voter Initiative.”
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