Homeland Security Unable to Prove That Thousands of Noncitizens Registered to Vote in Nevada
NYT > U.S. > Politics — 2026-08-20 16:07:00 — www.nytimes.com
Trump’s Claims of Widespread Noncitizen Voting in Nevada Collapse Under Scrutiny
A month after President Trump declared, without evidence, that thousands of noncitizens had illegally registered to vote in Nevada, officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were unable to substantiate his claim. Trump’s administration initially asserted that 278,000 noncitizens were registered to vote across four states, including an exact figure of 15,903 in Nevada. However, during a recent meeting with state election administrators, DHS officials revealed they had identified only 185 potential noncitizens in Nevada so far, according to emails and recordings obtained by The New York Times.
Trump’s False Claims and Their Role in Policy
Unproven claims of widespread noncitizen voting have been central to Trump’s political message and his justification for the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. In a televised address, Trump said, “We are releasing the results of a stunning investigation by the Department of Homeland Security,” falsely implying that the government had found solid evidence of noncitizen voting.
DHS Walks Back Administration’s Numbers
The federal officials told Nevada that the nearly 16,000 figure was merely “the ceiling” of potential noncitizens, not a verified count. The list DHS shared with Nevada was incomplete and nearly impossible to verify, lacking even basic identifying information. Nevada officials have requested more details, but DHS has not provided them.
Emails and video recordings show that, weeks after Trump’s national speech, DHS representatives admitted the numbers given to the public were preliminary and lacked the confidence needed to share a full data set with Nevada officials. The department’s letters to the states used vague language such as “there may be as many as,” offering no details on methodology.
Fact-Checking the Numbers
The inflated Nevada number and the subsequent lack of significant findings are yet another example of Trump making sweeping claims of election fraud without evidence. Similar patterns have emerged in other states: New Jersey, for example, found about 6,600 noncitizens improperly registered due to a software error—far below the 35,152 claimed by the Trump administration. Other states, including Iowa, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas, have also found only minuscule numbers of noncitizens on their voter rolls after further review.
Conclusion
President Trump’s repeated, unsubstantiated claims of widespread noncitizen voting have not held up under scrutiny. Despite bringing the full weight of the federal government to investigate voter fraud, his administration has failed to produce credible evidence to support these allegations. The pattern of inflated numbers and subsequent walk-backs underscores the lack of factual basis for Trump’s narrative, raising concerns about the impact of such claims on public trust and voter access.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/20/us/politics/trump-nevada-voter-election-fraud.html