Overview
- Mariana Alexandra Dewey, a Peruvian lawful permanent resident, was taken into ICE custody on Sept. 1 after authorities say she submitted a Kansas voter registration, cast a provisional ballot in Sedgwick County and later told investigators she had voted.
- Anthony Tyrone Higgs, a Bahamian national arrested Sept. 3 in Decatur, Georgia, is in ICE custody and placed in removal proceedings after HSI said he illegally voted in 2020 and officials cited a lengthy violent criminal record.
- DHS and HSI present the arrests as part of a wider surge that uses federal immigration systems, including the SAVE verification database, matched against state voter rolls and vendor searches to generate leads for investigators.
- Civil‑rights groups and some state election officials have filed lawsuits or publicly resisted federal data requests, arguing matches from federal databases are error‑prone, nontransparent and risk chilling lawful voters.
- The cases bolster White House and Republican calls for laws requiring proof of citizenship to register, such as the stalled SAVE America Act, and could increase state‑federal clashes over voter data and enforcement priorities.