The outlet's investigation, published Tuesday, found months of botched cases, inflated voter-fraud claims, and a federal court ruling that found the administration had violated privacy law.
"I wouldn't normally ask this of you if I was conducting an investigation with my usual methodology and speed, but there's a bit of pressure on the timeline of things," an HSI agent told a county election official in Ohio while requesting voter records, CNN reported.
"Voter fraud investigations aren't typically what HSI works," the agent wrote.
The pressure repeatedly sent agents after the wrong people, CNN found.
In Franklin County, Ohio, several people flagged by HSI had never been registered to vote, according to CNN.
After agents confused one voter's birthdate with his father's, an HSI agent wrote back to correct the record.
"Oops! Turns out the voter is actually his father," the agent wrote, CNN reported.
In Fort Bend County, Texas, HSI subpoenaed the county election director for voter records before agents even had a list of names to check, according to records obtained by Democracy Forward and shared with CNN.
When county officials asked for more details to verify they had the right voters, the agent replied.
"At this time, the information I sent is all we have," the agent wrote. "If you could just proceed with the information provided, that would be great."
Last month, DHS announced its analysis had identified more than 250,000 potential noncitizens registered to vote across four states, according to CNN. Officials in all four states said they were blindsided.
A Fox News reporter called Nevada's state election office before DHS had made any announcement, CNN reported.
"We just responded very plainly, like we have no idea what you're talking about," Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (D-NV) told CNN.
DHS later revised its earlier count of roughly 28,000 noncitizens on voter rolls in Republican-led states down to under 25,000, CNN reported. Georgia and North Carolina — both Republican-led states — disputed even those figures.
On June 22, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan blocked DHS from using its expanded citizenship database, known as SAVE — the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program — to check voter rolls, ruling it had violated federal privacy law.
"The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote," Sooknanan wrote.
The legal setback has done little to slow the operation, which is accelerating toward the November 3 midterm elections, according to Red Cedar Partners.
Of the roughly 24,000 people DHS flagged as potential noncitizen voters, only a handful of prosecutions have resulted, the analysis found.
Meanwhile, MS NOW reported that HSI agents themselves expressed deep concern that the administration's true goal is not stopping fraud — but scaring eligible voters away from the polls.
"I can't take something that's made up out of thin air and try to justify it or defend it," Aguilar told CNN.
