A Biden Judge Just Blocked DHS Days Before the Midterms and Her Record Explains Why

DHS told four states more than 250,000 noncitizens might be registered to vote there.

Now a Biden-appointed judge just stopped the agency from checking nine more states before Election Day.

The judge who blocked those investigations has a record that explains exactly why she did it.

The Judge Who Ruled Against Border Enforcement 93 Percent of the Time

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín was born in Mexico, worked as an ACLU attorney, and was appointed to the federal bench by President Biden in 2022.

An audit from Bench Receipts found she ruled against border-enforcement policies 93 percent of the time and rated her decisions "pro-crime" in 63 percent of the cases reviewed.

Martínez-Olguín already blocked one Trump administration policy last year, forcing the government to keep funding free lawyers for migrants facing deportation.

Now she has done it again, with Election Day eleven days away.

DHS Says Nine States Could Be Hiding Illegal Votes Right Now

Martínez-Olguín issued a preliminary injunction on October 21, 2026, blocking Department of Homeland Security field operations in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The order stops agents from approaching anyone they reasonably suspect of being a U.S. citizen until polls close on Election Day.

San Francisco, Santa Clara County, the California Nurses Association, National Nurses United, and the Voto Latino Foundation brought the lawsuit, filed in court as California Nurses Association v. Mullin.

They claimed DHS agents showing up to ask questions amounted to voter intimidation.

Martínez-Olguín agreed, writing that the people DHS approached had an "objectively reasonable fear of law enforcement entanglements."

A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital the department is "laser focused on identifying, prosecuting, and removing aliens who vote," adding that "only Americans should elect American leaders."

The spokesperson said DHS has no plans to investigate anyone it believes is a U.S. citizen.

That distinction is exactly what the lawsuit tried to erase.

National Nurses United and the Voto Latino Foundation are not neutral bystanders in this fight.

Both groups spend heavily every cycle turning out Democrat voters, and both just won a court order that keeps DHS out of nine states until after the ballots are counted.

Enforcement of the ruling holds until October 23, 2026, giving the administration a narrow window to appeal before the order locks in through Election Day.

DHS Secretary Mullin has already told four states that more than 250,000 noncitizens may be sitting on their voter rolls.

The ruling lands six days after the Justice Department sued California separately, seeking to block the state from counting roughly 20,000 ballots DOJ calls likely noncitizen votes.

What This Ruling Guarantees Before November 3

Democrats do not want conservative voters noticing one simple fact: a single judge, appointed by the man whose border policies let this problem grow in the first place, now controls whether nine states get scrutinized before Americans vote.

Martínez-Olguín did not rule on whether noncitizens are voting in those states.

She ruled that DHS cannot find out until it is too late to matter.

An injunction that expires the moment polls close is not a legal safeguard – it is a deadline that now belongs to Republicans, not to her.

Every day DHS spends fighting this in appellate court is a day investigators cannot knock on a single door in the states this order covers.

Voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Nevada will cast ballots without the review DHS says it needs, because one judge decided the review itself was the threat.

If Martínez-Olguín's 93 percent record is any guide, this will not be the last time she stands between this administration and an enforcement action Americans actually want.

The California lawsuit shows Democrats cannot stop Washington from fighting noncitizen voting everywhere – only in the nine states this one judge now controls.

Republicans have eleven days to win an appeal before Election Day, or the precedent locks in just in time for the next election too.

Sources:

• Teri Christoph, "Biden Judge Blocks DHS Voter Fraud Probes in Nine States Just Days Before the Midterms," RedState, October 22, 2026.
• Breitbart News, "Biden-Appointed Judge Stops Trump's Free Lawyers for Migrants," Breitbart, April 2, 2025.
• The Federalist, "DHS: More Than 250,000 Noncitizens Are Registered to Vote in Four States," The Federalist, July 16, 2026.
• Legal Insurrection, "Mullin: We've Identified 250,000 Noncitizens Registered to Vote in Four States," Legal Insurrection, 2026.
• The Daily Signal, "Justice Department Sues California Over Likely Noncitizens on Voter Lists," The Daily Signal, October 15, 2026.