Esther has been a permanent resident of the United States for many years and is a veteran at navigating the re-entry process when returning from visiting relatives in her native France.
But during a visit to Customs in mid-March, officers detained Lawrence, a 57-year-old Kansas resident, for 30 hours, forced him to spend the night in a holding cell on a concrete slab, and threatened to deport him.
why? Under questioning by customs officials, she admitted that she had voted in local elections even though she was not a U.S. citizen. Lawrence is not one of a handful of U.S. cities that allow noncitizens to vote in local elections. Both Kansas law and federal law require U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
Immigration and election experts say her previously unreported case marks a new escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts despite mounting evidence that unpopular votes are rare. (Esther asked that her last name not be used due to safety concerns.)
Historically, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has played no role in investigating election fraud. But transcripts of interviews provided to ProPublica by Esther’s attorney reveal that authorities issued her with a special scrutiny warning and that officers were aware of her voting history. Esther told investigators she thought she could vote in local elections because a state Department of Motor Vehicles official told her she was eligible when she renewed her driver’s license.
Kelly Doyle, assistant attorney general for the Department of Homeland Security in the Biden administration, said she had never heard of anyone being detained at a port of entry on suspicion of voting illegally.
“It took a lot of energy and effort to sift through all of this to find this needle in the haystack,” said Doyle, a longtime immigration attorney. “And it’s a needle in a haystack.”
A CBP spokesperson confirmed that officers detained a woman matching Esther’s description at the Detroit airport and placed her in deportation proceedings. The official did not respond to questions about whether authorities currently regularly question non-national travelers about voting at ports of entry, but stressed that illegal voting is a deportable offense.
“The Trump administration continues to enforce our nation’s laws,” the spokesperson said in an email. “Those who violate these laws will be processed, detained and removed as necessary.”
Esther’s attorney, Matthew Hopook, said Esther has no criminal history and has never violated the terms of her green card. Douglas County records show Esther voted in November 2023 elections, including the City Council and School Board elections. She did not vote in subsequent elections, including the 2024 presidential election.
After Hopook discussed her case with Homeland Security officials, an immigration judge granted Esther’s request to cancel her removal proceedings. It is unclear whether she will face future criminal charges. (CBP declined to comment on whether there are any pending cases.) Still, Hopook said CBP went too far in aggressively addressing the issue, calling it “really something.”
“It’s clear she wasn’t trying to break the law,” he said.
Wendy Weiser, vice president of democracy at the nonprofit voting rights organization Brennan Center for Justice, said that while President Trump has repeatedly claimed that millions of non-citizens are voting, data shows there are very few such cases, and most involve people like Esther who registered incorrectly.
“My concern is that these types of incidents are publicized as a tool to scare people,” Weiser said.
When such rare cases occur, they are typically identified by local and state election officials and notified to law enforcement. Elections lawyers say elections often stall because voters are often incorrectly registered by election officials or cast votes without knowing they are illegal. Depending on the charge, prosecutors may need to prove it was intentional.
President Trump has made it clear that he wants the federal government to do more to prevent and punish election fraud, despite a lack of evidence that it is a widespread problem.
He unsuccessfully urged Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require Americans to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote. In March 2025, he issued an executive order partially directing federal agencies to use resources to help locate and prosecute noncitizen voters. His Justice Department began requiring states to submit voter roll information, and DHS improved tools that allow states to verify the citizenship status of registered voters all at once.
As ProPublica reports, the tool turned out to be highly error-prone. However, despite its flaws, DHS still appears to be using this tool to pursue noncitizen voting prosecutions. DHS announced in a recent statement that its division, Homeland Security Investigations, will investigate more than 24,000 voters reported by SAVE as possible noncitizens.
A former CBP official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his current job precludes him from commenting publicly, said potential noncitizen voters were likely flagged in the system that customs officials use to verify international traveler records, such as passports. If so, officers will look at that person’s file and determine that they should be questioned further about their voting history.
Hopook said Estelle was on her way home from visiting her sick father in France and was detained during a layover. According to a transcript of her interview with a customs official, the official asked Esther if she had ever registered to vote or voted, to which Esther replied, “Yes, I have voted once.” The officer then asked if he had voted in the local elections to be held on November 7, 2023.
After questioning Esther, the officers placed her in a cell with a thin mattress on a concrete slab and a blanket donated by the airline, Hopuk said. She said she heard officers talking about the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and feared she would be transferred there next. Instead, she was released after being detained for more than 30 hours.
Jamie Hsu, the clerk in Douglas County, Kansas, where Estelle was registered, said in an interview that he learned of Estelle’s case on March 23, when he received an administrative subpoena from CBP seeking voter registration applications and voting records.
Schuh said she did not have an application, only data given to her by the Secretary of State’s office showing she registered in September 2023 and is not affiliated with a political party.
Schuh said federal law requires prospective voters to be granted registration only if they prove they are U.S. citizens. Esther claims she told a Department of Motor Vehicles official that she was not a citizen.
Schuh said Esther contacted him immediately after receiving the CBP subpoena. She asked him to cancel his voter registration, which he did on March 31, he said.
Hopook worries that the federal government has found a way to bypass prosecution and conviction by moving directly to deportation proceedings.
“People like Estelle, who didn’t intend to do anything wrong, are going to end up in Michigan prisons,” he said.
