The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People et al. v. DHS et al.

Case Overview

This lawsuit challenges the Trump administration’s nationwide effort to use the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to intimidate eligible voters into foregoing participation in civic life, including voting, during the 2026 midterm elections.

Over the last 18 months, the Trump administration has used DHS, its component agencies, and its agents to create a climate of fear among predominantly Black, Latino, and Asian immigrant communities. While claiming to enforce immigration law, the Trump administration has terrorized communities and surveilled, arrested, detained, and even killed U.S. citizens.

At the same time, the Trump administration is attempting to collapse the distinction between election administration and immigration enforcement. Although noncitizen voter fraud is vanishingly rare, the Trump administration has consistently raised the specter of widespread, intentional non-citizen voting to justify unprecedented DHS involvement in U.S. elections. The administration has sought access to sensitive voter rolls maintained by the states. It has attempted to control state election administration. And President Trump and senior Trump administration officials have consistently hinted that armed DHS agents, including ICE agents, may appear at polling locations this fall.

Given the climate of intimidation the Trump administration has created, many eligible voters with connections to immigrant populations are now frightened of the U.S. government and are attempting to avoid encountering U.S. government officials—even if that means refraining from exercising their constitutional right to vote.

Together with Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), the Legal Defense Fund, Brennan Center for Justice, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, Protect Democracy, and Democracy Defenders Fund, the National Immigration Law Center is suing the Trump administration to stop its campaign of unlawful voter intimidation carried out under the guise of aggressive immigration enforcement and protecting election integrity. Plaintiffs include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Mi Familia en Accion, OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates, the National Urban League, Minnesota 8 (MN8), the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the International Union of Painters (IUPAT), and the United Food and Commercial Workers International (UFCW).