Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Millin said officials in states that refuse to support the federal government’s election integrity effort could face serious consequences.
In a Thursday night speech, President Donald Trump said a Department of Homeland Security investigation of state that have shared voter information with the federal government revealed the presence of up to 278,000 non-citizens on voter rolls.
“I will tell you, the states that choose not to participate with the SAVE program and they choose not to participate in securing the elections, we will make sure that we make those states a priority to look at who voted in their states and hold them, the election officials, accountable,” Mullin said in a video posted to X.
The Daily Caller: Can you ensure to Americans that the midterm elections will be secure?
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin: “Yes, we can absolutely build confidence in the American people [with our elections], but the states have to do their part.”
“The states that choose to… pic.twitter.com/9EXKsBipwf
— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) July 17, 2026
“If the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections and they chose not to, then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,” he said
As noted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigraiton Services, SAVE is “an online service for registered federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local government agencies to verify immigration status and U.S. citizenship.”
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Mullin also sent a message to anyone voting illegally, according to the Associated Press.
He warned anyone who casts an illegal vote in the coming midterm election, “we will hunt you down, we will find you and we will prosecute you.”
Mullin said states who seek grants to support running elections will need to do things Trump’s way, according to NBC News.
The Trump administration is “going to make our security enhancements mandatory, meaning that if these states want a grant and they want to be reimbursed to work or to run federal elections, they’re going to have to implement security issues,” he added.
Mullin’s comments came as he sent letters to four states warning them of non-citizens who are on the states’ voter rolls illegally
A DHS news release said letters went to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, New Jersey Secretary of State Dale Caldwell, Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, and Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt.
“Election security is national security,” Mullin said.
“As President Trump announced last night, DHS has identified over 250,000 potential non-citizens illegally registered to vote in just 4 U.S. states. Only Americans should be electing American leaders.”
DHS said there could be as many as 190,832 non-citizens registered to vote in California; 35152 in New Jersey, 15,903 in Nevada and 14,576 in Pennsylvania.
Mullin’s letters called for a response with two weeks and urged state officials to “confirm their intentions to collaborate with DHS in order to ensure free, fair, and honest elections,” the release said.
Mullin said the federal effort to ensure election integrity faces obstacles in the courts, where court rulings have prevented the federal government from accessing state voter rolls, according to The Hill.
“Hold the election officials accountable.” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin speaks about steps to be taken to secure election security in America by conditioning funding grants to states. @SecMullinDHS pic.twitter.com/xlaRvcm7sW
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) July 17, 2026
“Activist judges are saying what? They don’t want to secure our elections? Once again, how is this a partisan issue? This shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” he said.
“This should be that any judge and any God-fearing individual that loves this country should want to make sure that our elections are secure.”
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