DHS Claim of 16K Noncitizen Voters in Nevada Falls to 0 After State Inquiry

An estimate from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the number of noncitizen residents registered to vote in Nevada has dropped from an initial claim of nearly 16,000, down to 185, and eventually to zero, just weeks after President Donald Trump cited the claim during a campaign rally in a push to purge several states’ voter rolls.

DHS officials initially informed Nevada election officials that they had reason to believe that 15,903 noncitizens were registered to vote in the Silver State. But last month, department officials acknowledged that number was overblown, while maintaining that 185 noncitizen residents could potentially vote.

Nevada investigated those names and found that none of them were noncitizens.

“As for the 185 individuals, our records indicate that they were citizens. You have provided nothing of substance to suggest otherwise,” Nevada Deputy Attorney General Greg Ott wrote in a letter to DHS.

In a statement regarding the department’s claims, Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar called out DHS for its error, and for continuing to push similar false claims elsewhere.

“Our records do not support DHS’s claims, and DHS has still not provided evidence to change that. Instead, DHS officials continue their attempts to intimidate election officials into compliance and deter voters with huge claims of fraud with no evidence,” Aguilar said. “Repeating unsupported claims does not make them true.”

The errant number was part of a larger figure Trump cited during a campaign rally in July. Trump had claimed that, within four states alone (including Nevada), around 278,000 noncitizens had voted in the 2020 election. Trump frequently peddles baseless claims about the outcome of that race, wrongly asserting that former President Joe Biden’s win was the result of election fraud.

The revised figures from Nevada suggest that the larger figure, too, was widely overblown. Indeed, in one of the other states Trump cited, Pennsylvania, DHS alleged that around 14,500 noncitizens were registered to vote. When Pennsylvania officials reached out to the department, representatives from DHS indicated they did not actually have “high confidence” in that estimate.

Trump also claimed in August that around 24,000 noncitizens voted in the 2020 election, citing a Census Bureau analysis. But many experts doubt that study’s conclusions, as its methodology was questionable, and the report omitted key details, including how the data was examined and even the authors’ names.

“A properly done Census report would have had that information, and the fact that it is missing is glaring and makes me think that they are hiding something,” said Beth Jarosz, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Massive Data Institute who has experience composing reports derived from Census numbers.

The Trump administration’s exaggerated claims of voter fraud and noncitizens registering to vote serve to sow doubts among his base about past and future elections. Indeed, Trump has already indicated that he may not accept the results of the 2026 midterms if Democrats win.

“I will [accept the midterm outcomes] if the elections are honest,” he said in an interview in February, adding that, if the results aren’t to his liking, “then something else has to happen.”