The US Justice Department’s civil rights chief, Harmeet Dhillon, said the Trump administration intends to investigate and prosecute every provable case of illegal voting. The comments followed reports that non-citizens had been registered to vote in New Jersey, and signal a more aggressive federal approach to scrutinising voter rolls and alleged electoral offences.

Dhillon described the policy as a “broken windows” enforcement strategy, meaning even individual violations would be pursued where evidence supports prosecution. She warned that non-citizens who vote illegally could face criminal consequences and exclusion from the United States, contrasting the approach with that of previous administrations.