一名联邦法官已下令国土安全部停止在搜寻非公民选民过程中采取的某些调查行动，并在裁决书中写道，该部门的努力依赖有缺陷的数据，这些数据包含了合法拥有投票权的美国公民。
A federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to stop certain investigative actions in its hunt for noncitizen voters, writing that the department’s efforts rely on faulty data that includes US citizens legally allowed to vote.
法官阿拉塞利·马丁内斯-奥尔金在命令中写道，国土安全部声称有数十万可能的非法选民的数据“众所周知会无意中包含美国公民”，并“让公民担心他们的名字会被错误地列入数十万被确定调查对象名单中”。该法官的命令专门限制国土安全部在实地调查非公民投票时采取的行动，例如访谈，并规定如果国土安全部认为调查对象可能是美国公民，则不得采取这些行动。
Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín wrote in the order that DHS’s data alleging hundreds of thousands of possible illegal voters “is widely known to inadvertently include U.S. citizens” and “leaves citizens afraid that their name will be wrongly included in the hundreds of thousands identified for investigation.”The judge’s order specifically limits actions DHS takes in the field to investigate noncitizen voting, such as interviews, and says that DHS cannot take those actions if it believes the person they’re targeting could be a US citizen.
该命令涵盖加利福尼亚州、康涅狄格州、佐治亚州、密苏里州、内华达州、纽约州、宾夕法尼亚州、华盛顿州和威斯康星州，但要等到周五下午才生效，给特朗普政府留出上诉时间。一旦生效，该命令将持续到中期选举之后。
The order — which covers California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin, however, does not take effect until Friday afternoon, giving the Trump administration time to appeal. Once it goes into effect, it is set to last until after the midterm elections.
国土安全部一直是政府加强总统唐纳德·特朗普关于非公民大规模舞弊这一毫无根据指控的推动力量，大力扩大了对此问题的调查力度。尽管新裁决的范围有限，但它标志着对该机构做法的一次显著反制。CNN已联系国土安全部置评。
DHS has been a driving force behind the administration’s efforts to bolster President Donald Trump’s unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud by noncitizens, aggressively expanding its efforts to investigate the issue. The new ruling, though limited in scope, marks a notable pushback to the agency’s approach. CNN has reached out to DHS for comment.
“这是一项严肃的保护：现行政策针对的是已知的归化公民，”代表提起诉讼团体的法律组织“保护民主”的律师博·特雷米蒂埃告诉CNN。“这些行动被禁止。此外，该命令应迫使国土安全部停止在存在公民身份迹象的情况下，推定许多其他人是可行的调查目标。”马蒂内斯-奥尔金在命令中写道：“此处的争议点在于，依赖公认有缺陷且不完整的数据，在中期选举前几个月内制作一份供国土安全部调查局（HSI）面谈的个人名单。”
“This order is a serious protection: the current policy targets known naturalized citizens,” Beau Tremitiere, an attorney for Protect Democracy, a legal organization that represents the groups that brought the case, told CNN. “Those operations are prohibited. And this order should otherwise force DHS to stop presuming many others are viable targets when there are indicia of citizenship.”Martínez-Olguín wrote in her order that “at issue here is the reliance on admittedly flawed and incomplete data to create a list of individuals for HSI to interview in the months leading up to an election.”
该诉讼由投票权利和倡导团体提起，他们辩称国土安全部的行动已导致美国公民因担心被列入国土安全部制作的广泛且有缺陷的名单中，而不敢在即将到来的中期选举中投票。“公众对安全选举、免受干扰或恐吓的利益，远超被告所谓打击非美国公民非法投票的利益，”法官周三在判决书中写道。
The lawsuit against the government was brought by voting rights and advocacy groups who argued that DHS’s actions have already resulted in US citizens being afraid to vote in the upcoming midterm elections, as they may be included in the sweeping, faulty lists DHS has created. “The public’s interest in safe elections, free from interference or intimidation, far exceed Defendants’ purported interest in combating unlawful voting by non-U.S. citizens,” the judge wrote Wednesday.