A Biden-appointed federal judge in California ruled Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security must halt certain investigations into suspected illegal voting, citing concerns over voter intimidation.U.S.District Judge Araceli MartÃnez-OlguÃn, the jurist in question, was born in Mexico and nominated to the federal bench by President Joe Biden in 2022.
Before becoming a federal judge, MartÃnez-OlguÃn spent about six years at the American Civil Liberties Union, a progressive civil rights organization, where she worked on women's and immigrants' rights issues.The activist groups suing DHS "demonstrate[d] that they are likely to succeed in their claim that Defendants have run afoul of the Voting Rights Actâs prohibition of intimidating voter assistance and mobilization," according to MartÃnez-OlguÃn.DOJ OFFICIAL DEFENDS TRUMP'S NONCITIZEN VOTER PROBE ON '60 MINUTES,' ACCUSES SHOW OF EDITING OUT HER ANSWERSThe Department of Homeland Security has directed U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport undocumented immigrants who vote in American elections.
(Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)The publicâs "interests in safe elections, free from interference or intimidation, far exceed (the governmentâs) purported interest in combating unlawful voting by non-U.S.citizens," she added.The Trump administration, meanwhile, maintained that noncitizen voting in federal elections is a crime and that DHS has statutory authority to investigate suspected violations.
MartÃnez-OlguÃn did not find investigating noncitizen voting as itself unlawful, but instead argued that DHSâ methods likely violate the law as it used unreliable source data and sent armed agents to homes to conduct interviews, which could constitute intimidation.STATE DEPARTMENT CONSIDERS SHARING PASSPORT RECORDS FOR VOTER CITIZENSHIP CHECKSMembers of Homeland Security Investigations listen as FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a press conference on Oct.23, 2025...