Federal immigration agents are investigating suspected voter fraud in Missouri as part of a nationwide effort by the Trump administration in the weeks leading up to the midterm elections.
In two social media posts on Sept. 3, the Kansas City office of Homeland Security Investigations said its agents were investigating suspected unlawful voting in St. Louis, citing the agency's commitment to "protecting election integrity and rooting out voter fraud wherever it occurs."
HSI is Immigration and Customs Enforcement's investigative arm, and typically investigates other criminal matters such as human trafficking, weapons trade and financial fraud. Yet, the Department of Homeland Security is reportedly using the agency as a central force in President Trump's hunt for purported widespread election fraud.
One photograph shows a federal agent walking in front of the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners. Another shows two HSI agents standing in front of a residential building. The agency alleged agents were "on the ground in St. Louis investigating suspected unlawful voting," though it is unknown when the photographs were taken or how many people are under investigation.
The social media posts come amid a nationwide push by the Trump administration to investigate potential voting by people without legal status. On Wednesday, a CBS News investigation found that armed federal agents have been knocking on doors in several states, questioning residents about their immigration status and whether they have registered to vote or cast ballots in previous elections.
Missouri is among nine states listed in a federal lawsuit filed Oct. 15 that were targets of the large-scale voter-fraud investigation by Homeland Security Investigations.
The suit filed by the League of Women Voters, Electronic Privacy Information Center and League of United Latin American Citizens alleges DHS illegally collected voting records from at least 47 states and combined them with other personal information to attempt to identify alleged noncitizen voters.
A federal judge in California filed a scathing preliminary injunction on Wednesday, curtailing the DHS' so-called "Unauthorized Voter Initiative" effort from executing certain investigations through Election Day.
U.S. District Judge Aracelli Martínez-Olguín opined that the Trump administration's use of armed agents, unreliable voter data and a social media publicity campaign — specifically noting the two St. Louis posts — likely violated the Voting Rights Act's protections against voter intimidation.
A separate suit brought against DHS by the NAACP also alleges the Trump administration's threats to send armed immigration agents to the polls during the November midterms equated to voter intimidation targeting communities of color.
While federal prosecutors charged at least two Missourians this month under allegations they illegally voted, including a Cass County man and a McDonald County woman, there is no conclusive evidence of widespread voter fraud in Missouri. The federal government did note both individuals were legally authorized to live in the United States, but were not eligible to vote in federal elections. The cases are still pending and neither has yet been convicted.
The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, has kept a registry of people convicted of voting illegally since 2000. Of the 30 cases in Missouri, STLPR found only two tied to people without legal status. The database also includes cases involving fraudulent voter registration, forged ballot-petition signatures and other election-related offenses. As of 2022, there were more than 4.2 million Missourians registered to vote.
The Trump administration has also faced scrutiny over its claims of voter fraud nationwide. In July, the Department of Homeland Security admitted to inflating the number of people without legal status who could be registered to vote.
Across the country, only 156 people have been charged with voting-related offenses since the beginning of Trump's second administration, according to Department of Justice figures reported by CBS News. The federal government data show there were more than 211 million registered voters across the United States in the 2024 presidential election.
ICE, which oversees HSI, and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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