The Department of Justice on Thursday sued California for alleged "state-facilitated voter fraud," seeking to block 20,000 people on the voter rolls suspected of being noncitizens.

The suit follows an investigation from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in which the agency reviewed voter registration data for possible foreigners who were illegally registered to vote.

“State-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “If found responsible in a court of law, the State of California will have seriously undermined confidence in our electoral system and violated laws that protect our nation’s representative system of government. The Department of Justice will continue working to uncover cases of voter fraud, hold fraudsters accountable, and restore trust in American elections.”

The DOJ specifically asked that the court bar California from tabulating mail-in ballots from likely noncitizens until the effective determination of that voters' citizenship status.

California has discounted the Trump administation'c claims.

“This is an emergency of the DOJ’s creation,” Secretary of State Shirley Wever wrote the DOJ this week. "California's election administration will continue to be governed by applicable federal and state law, not by unsubstantiated claims and outrageous demands.”

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.