The Trump administration’s threats of “prison time” for California election workers who process ballots cast by people it says may not be U.S. citizens were illegal and should be halted, a union representing the workers said in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday.

The complaint by the Service Employees International Union was filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, hours after the Justice Department expanded a criminal investigation into next week’s elections by sending grand jury subpoenas to California election officials.

The lawsuit was the latest in a series of legal challenges involving an unscientific list of some 20,000 people the administration said might be noncitizens registered to vote.

“This case involves unprecedented and unlawful threats by federal government officials to state and local election workers,” the union wrote in its complaint. “The threats, intimidation, and coercion are rapidly escalating as Election Day approaches.”

The union — along with its parent organization, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the NAACP — asked U.S. District Judge Casey Pitts to declare the government’s actions voter intimidation and a violation of states’ constitutional authority to regulate elections.

The government used its list of potential noncitizens registered to vote to demand that California and other states set aside ballots cast by people on the list until their citizenship status could be verified. California refused, and the dispute led to multiple lawsuits and an expanded Justice Department criminal investigation.

The legal battle unfolded days before an election that would determine control of Congress and could shift power away from President Donald Trump’s Republican Party, which held majorities in both the House and Senate.

Justice Department lawyers said they were enforcing federal law that prohibited noncitizens from registering to vote in federal elections. But California Democratic leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, accused the government of interfering in the elections and intimidating voters.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Los Angeles rejected the Justice Department’s request to force California to set aside about 20,000 ballots from people in the government’s database. The administration appealed the ruling.

“Never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch,” U.S. District Judge David Carter wrote in his ruling.

The previous day, Carter warned Justice Department attorneys that he viewed their repeated references to prosecuting election officials as threats.

“This court believes that it would be wise that any threats to state and county elected employees cease immediately,” the judge said.

The list of potential noncitizens registered to vote was used to pinpoint 28 individuals charged with misdemeanor offenses involving illegal voter registration or voting. Some also faced felony immigration charges for allegedly lying about their citizenship to register to vote.

Earlier this month, a federal judge in Oakland ordered immigration investigators to stop interviewing people based on the list until after Tuesday’s election, calling the database “flawed.”

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., also ordered the government this week to provide the list to immigrant rights groups.

The lawsuit filed Thursday challenged the Justice Department’s warnings that election workers could face personal prosecution if they failed to remove ballots cast by people on the government’s list. The warnings appeared in letters, social media posts, public statements and court proceedings, according to the complaint.

“The legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring a federal crime are significant,” acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said in a letter to Los Angeles County attorney Peter Bollinger on Oct. 16.

The lawsuit also cited a social media post by Trump, who made immigration enforcement a central focus of his second administration. The post warned, “They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!”

The complaint also cited a letter from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to four states, including California, that threatened “prison time” for election workers who processed ballots.

Over the past week, the Justice Department sent grand jury subpoenas to county election officials in California, including one official who was served at both his home and workplace, according to the lawsuit.

The department also threatened to prosecute election workers in Texas and sent a letter Monday to Washington state demanding that officials segregate ballots cast by people on the government’s list, the lawsuit said.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Bee.

On Wednesday, department spokesperson Kiersten Pels declined to comment on pending litigation when asked about a separate case. She defended the department’s investigations, however.

“Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, and the Department has a duty to enforce it,” Pels said.

_____

©2026 The Sacramento Bee. Visit sacbee.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.