Markwayne Mullin promises to prosecute illegal voters, enabling officials: 'We will hunt you down'

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin promised during a Friday press briefing to hunt down and prosecute illegal voters in the U.S., noting that 250,000 non-citizens are illegally registered to vote in just four states.

Speaking in the wake of President Donald Trump's primetime address about election security Thursday night, Mullin outlined an aggressive plan to tighten voter roll integrity, harden election infrastructure and hold election officials accountable for alleged failures.

Mullin claimed DHS has identified 250,000 non-citizens registered to vote just in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada, all of which are states that are not participating in the DHS SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) system. The online service administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) allows government agencies to verify the citizenship and immigration status of individuals.

Among what he described as the 23 "proactive" states cooperating with DHS on the program, Mullin said officials claim to have identified 28,000 non-citizens and 400,000 deceased individuals still on the voter rolls. He criticized activist judges for hindering the program, saying some of them "are trying to put a stop to" federal efforts to remove illegal voters.

"Currently, because of the SAVE program, we have a pending appeal because activist judges are saying ... they don't want to secure our elections. Once again, how is this a partisan issue? This shouldn't be a partisan issue. This should be that any judge and any God-fearing individual that loves this country should want to make sure that our elections are secure," he said.

Mullin went on to highlight alleged vulnerabilities in voting machines, claiming, "We know for sure that our foreign adversaries — not our allies — foreign adversaries have parts that are vital pieces in our voting machines."

"We know that they can access what they consider the key to the back of these voting machines. We know that they can change voter registration and your vote. We know it's possible. There's not a question. It's not even for debate," he said.

Mullin noted that if states want grants or reimbursements for participating in federal elections, they will have to cooperate with mandatory security enhancements, such as securing voter machines and scrubbing the voter rolls of illegal aliens. He also warned that anyone who votes illegally will be found and charged.

"States must do their part to secure our election systems, and we stand by to help. If you are an illegal or you're voting illegally, we will hunt you down. We will find you, and we will prosecute you. The American people must have confidence in our elections," he said.

In response to a question regarding whether Americans can be confident that the upcoming midterm elections will be secure, Mullin expressed hope that confidence can be restored, but reiterated that states "have to do their part." He suggested officials who do not cooperate could face punishment that potentially includes jail time.

"I will tell you, if the states that choose not to participate with the SAVE program and they choose not to participate in securing the elections, we will make sure that we make those states a priority to look at who voted in their states, and hold, then, the election officials accountable," he said.

"If the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections, and they chose not to, then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even — depending on how far it goes — prison time."

Echoing claims Trump made during his Thursday speech, Mullin also asserted that U.S. intelligence officials purposely concealed the extent of election fraud in the past, and promised that they would also be punished.

"There's no question the intelligence community from the FBI, CIA and even other places within DHS — not underneath President Trump's leadership, but that was underneath the Biden administration — kept it from President Trump and the American people in Congress," he said.

"We are currently going through those lists. We will hold each one of them accountable. Some people aren't here. Some people are no longer in the agencies. Those that are, we will be holding them accountable."

"Those that abused their role in this will definitely be held accountable, because there is no excuse if you purposely disobeyed the law and you purposely went around statute ... you have a legal reason to be held accountable," he added.