Whistleblower claims DHS agents were reportedly told they were “not personally liable” in fabricating credentials to access Americans’ voter records

Department of Homeland Security lawyers reportedly told immigration officers they would not be personally liable. This is in regards to accessing state voter registration websites in ways that could violate state law. 

The revelation comes from an anonymous whistleblower who raised concerns about how the Trump administration is investigating suspected noncitizen voters. The whistleblower claims officers were instructed to take voter information compiled by DHS and search for those records through state election websites.

Per Guardian, the allegations were detailed in a disclosure released by lawyers representing the whistleblower. The disclosure also raises questions about the reliability of the voter data being handed to officers and the pressure they faced to create federal records based on that information.

DHS officers were reportedly given a legal assurance

The disclosure says officers questioned the legality of searching state voter databases under the instructions they received. Their concern was that accessing another person’s record could require them to misrepresent their identity.

A presentation shown to officers reportedly stated that DHS’s Office of the General Counsel considered the searches permissible as open-source research when they were connected to investigative or adjudicative duties. The presentation also said further clarification had been sought from DHS leadership.

Officers were then reportedly told that immigration and immigration services personnel “are not personally liable for conducting these searches when done as part of their official duties and properly documented.” That language became a central concern for the whistleblower’s legal team.

Lawyers representing the whistleblower argued that the assurance appeared to acknowledge potential legal problems with the searches while shielding individual officers from personal liability. They said this raised concerns that officials knew the activity could violate state laws but still expected officers to carry it out.

The whistleblower said DHS sometimes provided officers with a person’s name along with specific information about when that person supposedly registered and voted. Yet officers could reportedly find no corresponding record when they searched the relevant state database.

That created an immediate problem for investigators trying to determine if someone was actually a noncitizen voter. The disclosure says officers believed they needed to know where the information came from and how it had been obtained before taking further action.

California was reportedly one of the most difficult cases. Officers often could not access the state’s voter registration database, but they were still instructed to create records about the individuals in DHS’s Tecs law enforcement database.

The allegations have already drawn criticism from lawmakers. California Senator Alex Padilla described the disclosure as involving potentially thousands of violations of state law, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accused DHS of sending officers on what he called a “wild goose chase” and alleged that the department was telling them to lie.

DHS had not immediately responded to a request for comment on the allegations.