President Donald Trump and his administration have made repeated efforts to keep key information secret since returning to the White House, despite claiming dedication to transparency. That’s why American Oversight has filed hundreds of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests this year, seeking public information about the administration’s actions, goals, and influences.
This week, we brought suit in cases where the government has not disclosed information that Americans need.
Election Denier Heather Honey in Lead ‘Election Integrity’ Role at DHS
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) have failed to answer FOIA requests about Heather Honey, an election-denial activist who Trump recently appointed as the agency’s deputy assistant secretary for elections integrity.
This week, we sued DHS and USCIS to demand transparency about Honey’s appointment, calendars, and communications, including with other known election deniers.
Transparency about Honey’s appointment and tenure is key to understanding who is tasked with overseeing our election infrastructure. Honey’s actions have already alarmed and confused many election officials: She reportedly repeated rhetoric associated with baseless claims of widespread voter fraud during a recent official DHS meeting. Before her appointment to DHS, Honey suggested that the Trump administration could declare a “national emergency” to impose new rules on state and local election officials — a move she said could be justified by an “actual investigation” into the 2020 election if it revealed “manipulation” of the vote.
The records at issue in our lawsuit could show how Trump and his allies intend to undermine, and potentially subvert, the security of future elections.
Our previous investigations have helped shed light on Honey’s involvement in the election-denial movement and her outreach to state officials advancing baseless claims about voter fraud.
What Information Is Behind the Trump Administration’s “Voter Maintenance” Systems?
We teamed up with Campaign Legal Center to file lawsuits against DHS, USCIS, and the Social Security Administration (SSA) this week, for information about the Trump administration’s “voter maintenance” work.
Under the Trump administration, DHS’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system has evolved into a federal voter data system that uses various sources to flag potential noncitizens on state voter rolls —– changes that could be used to justify large-scale voter purges and disenfranchise eligible voters.
So-called “noncitizen voting” is incredibly rare, and falsehoods about noncitizen voting can result in voter suppression and increased doubts in election results. “The impact will fall hardest on those already forced to fight for access to the ballot — Black, brown, immigrant, low-income, disabled, and young voters — under the false banner of ‘fraud prevention,’” said Chioma Chukwu, executive director at American Oversight. “The public has a right to know what this system is, what data is being used, and whether proper safeguards are in place to protect voters. Transparency is essential to protecting the integrity of our elections and combating dangerous voter fraud conspiracies intended to disenfranchise marginalized communities.”
The administration has offered virtually no explanation for how the system operates or how it plans to protect voters’ rights, including data privacy. Our lawsuits seek agency communications and records that could help answer those questions.
New Lawsuit Demands Top DHS Officials' Texts
We sued DHS and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for failing to release communication records from Secretary Kristi Noem and other top officials. The messages we are seeking could reveal DHS’s role in recent Trump administration decisions — like military deployments to American cities and the upheaval of government operations under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
We filed suit after the agencies failed to properly respond to our FOIA requests for communication records belonging to Noem and other senior DHS officials. In August, DHS told us that it could no longer search for the requested text messages and that texts created since April were “no longer maintained.” DHS has since acknowledged these statements were erroneous.
American Oversight in the News
DHS sued for records on Trump-appointed election conspiracy theorist (Democracy Docket)
Lindsey Halligan’s text messages come under investigation (Newsweek)
More public records exemptions filed for 2026 session (Tallahassee Democrat)
Hundreds attend town hall to question private ICE immigration detention site in Marana (Tucson Sentinel)
Other Stories We’re Following
Details of DHS agreement reveal risks of Trump administration’s use of Social Security data for voter citizenship checks (ProPublica)
ICE quietly furloughed its congressional relations team during shutdown (Politico)
Ohio's secretary of state forwards alleged voter fraud cases to DOJ after local prosecutors don't act (Statehouse News Bureau)
