The Justice Department is warning local election officials in California to cooperate with the administration to identify noncitizens on a list of registered voters or face possible legal action, according to a letter obtained by NBC News. The department sent letters Friday to 57 of California’s 58 counties in a move that signals an escalation in the Trump administration’s effort to prevent the state from counting the ballots of voters the federal government identifies as likely noncitizens. Los Angeles County received a similar letter last week. NBC News obtained the letter sent to San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Joani Finwall from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. In it, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bilal Essayli notes that his office is providing a list of 1,133 names of “possible foreigners.” “Within 48 hours, we ask that you commit to working with the Department of Justice and DHS to identify who on the attached list is a citizen and who is not,” Essayli wrote. “I write to make unequivocally clear the legal implications of continuing to send mail-in ballots to those on the list or tabulating ballots cast by them until citizenship can be verified.” For those whose citizenship status cannot be confirmed, Essayli asked the county to “immediately instruct the appropriate election official to separate, not cancel, those individuals’ mail-in ballots until their citizenship status can be determined.” Voting for foreigners in a federal election is a federal crime, and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally illegal,” Essayli wrote in the letter. “The letters speak for themselves,” Essayli said in a statement to NBC News. “Any election official who knowingly processes a non-citizen’s ballot exposes themselves to legal risk.” The New York Times was the first to report on the letters. “Trump’s Justice Department has not provided any evidence for its claims of massive voter fraud,” said Sen. Alex Padilla. Democrat from California, in a statement Friday night. “They have admitted that the data they point to is inaccurate and unreliable. “No matter how many lawsuits they file or how many election officials they threaten, they have no authority to interfere.” The administration has sued to stop the state from counting more than 20,000 mail-in ballots from voters it suspects are not U.S. citizens. On Thursday, it asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to impose the restrictions before the lower court rules on the case.
