A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from using a revamped federal immigration database to help states identify potential noncitizens on voter rolls ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
In a 75-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan found that recent changes made to the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database created serious risks of inaccurate voter screenings and could lead to eligible Americans being wrongly removed from voter rolls.
The ruling halts a key component of Trump’s broader effort to increase federal involvement in election oversight. Last year, following a presidential executive order, the Department of Homeland Security overhauled the SAVE database, a system originally designed to verify immigration and citizenship status for government benefit programs.
The administration modified the system to allow state and local election officials to conduct large-scale searches aimed at identifying noncitizens registered to vote. Voting rights organizations and privacy advocates challenged the changes in court, arguing that the revamped system was unreliable and vulnerable to errors.
They warned that naturalized U.S. citizens and other eligible voters could be incorrectly flagged as ineligible, potentially resulting in voter purges ahead of critical elections. Judge Sooknanan agreed with many of those concerns, concluding that the administration’s overhaul made the database less accurate rather than more reliable.
According to the ruling, the changes created a substantial risk that lawful voters could be disenfranchised through faulty citizenship checks. The judge characterized the implementation as rushed and inadequately tested, siding with plaintiffs who described the effort as “haphazard.”
The decision represents the latest judicial setback for the Trump administration’s election-related initiatives. Since the beginning of the year, federal courts across multiple states have repeatedly rejected Justice Department efforts to obtain detailed voter registration information from state governments.
Judges in California, Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin have either dismissed or blocked federal attempts to collect sensitive voter data, including driver’s license numbers, partial Social Security numbers, and other personal information.
Administration officials have argued that stronger federal oversight is necessary to prevent voter fraud and ensure that only eligible citizens participate in elections. Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed that states are not doing enough to maintain accurate voter rolls.
However, numerous state audits and academic studies have found that voter fraud remains rare in the United States. Civil rights groups have warned that large-scale citizenship verification programs often generate false matches and disproportionately affect naturalized citizens, minority voters, and individuals with incomplete government records.
Control of both chambers of Congress is expected to be closely contested, making election administration and voting rights issues central political battlegrounds. The Trump administration is expected to appeal the decision, ensuring that the legal fight over federal voter-screening efforts will likely continue through the midterm election season.
