The Justice Department (DOJ) has sued a locality for refusing to provide information about non-citizens who are illegally registered to vote.

The target is the Orange County, California, registrar. Robert Page, the lawsuit alleges, violated two federal voting laws by concealing detailed information about cancellations of voter registrations.

The lawsuit is the fourth that DOJ has filed against pro-illegal-alien states, cities, and towns. The first three seek to turn over state and local sanctuary laws.

The suit was filed by DOJ’s Civil Rights Division on Wednesday. According to a department news release, the lawsuit targets Page

for refusing to provide the Justice Department with records pertaining to the removal of non-citizens from its voter registration list and for failing to maintain an accurate voter list in violation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

As explained in the 12-page complaint:

HAVA requires State election officials to ensure that the statewide computerized list of voters is accurate and current by (i) ensuring that all registered voters are included in the list, (ii) removing the names of voters who are not registered to vote or who are ineligible to vote; and (iii) removing duplicate names from the computerized list.

Another law, the National Voter Registration Act, requires that “states implement procedures to maintain accurate and current voter registration lists.”

Both laws require that those “not eligible to vote” be removed from voter rolls.

With that as background, the lawsuit discloses that the “family member of a non-citizen” complained to DOJ that the “non-citizen received an unsolicited mail-in ballot from” Orange County, “despite lack of citizenship.”

The complaint triggered a letter, dated June 2, to Page. DOJ asked him to provide the number of voter registrations, going back to January 1, 2020, that the county canceled because the individual was ineligible to vote. DOJ also requested “records … related to each cancellation … including copies of each registrant’s voter registration application, voter registration record, voting history, and related correspondence.”

Page did provide data. But he redacted crucial information such as numbers on driver’s license, Social Security, and voter and identification cards. Also omitted were language preference, and images of registrants’ signatures. Page wrote that California law forbids him from providing that information, the lawsuit says.

But not providing that information, DOJ replied, prohibits the department from assessing whether the registrar is complying with federal law.

Thus, the two-count complaint asks the court to declare Page “not in compliance” with the two federal voting laws and force him to comply with the request by providing the redacted information.

Said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon:

Voting by non-citizens is a federal crime, and states and counties that refuse to disclose all requested voter information are in violation of well-established federal elections laws. Removal of non-citizens from the state’s voter rolls is critical to ensuring that the state’s voter rolls are accurate and that elections in California are conducted without fraudulent voting. The Department of Justice will hold jurisdictions that refuse to comply with federal voting laws accountable.

The latest salvo from DOJ continues its barrage of complaints against recalcitrant states and localities that refuse to comply with federal immigration laws.

DOJ opened fire in early February with a complaint against Chicago, Cook County, and the state of Illinois for statutes that interfere with the enforcement of immigration laws. Lawsuits against New York state and New York City followed the same month. Then DOJ sued Denver and the state of Colorado.

The lawsuits claim that the defendants’ sanctuary and other pro-illegal-alien statutes trespass the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. As well, the sanctuary laws prohibit sharing immigration information with the federal government, yet another violation of federal law.

Local officials might face criminal sanctions as well.

A day after President Trump took office, Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove warned the rogue state and local officials that DOJ might investigate them for crimes.

Bove wrote in a memo to DOJ employees:

Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands and requests pursuant to, for example, the President’s extensive Article II authority with respect to foreign affairs and national security, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Alien Enemies Act.

U.S. attorneys, he wrote, will investigate “for potential prosecution” mulish officials who defy the law. Bove cited the laws that forbid harboring illegals, conspiracy against the United States, and violating the Immigration and Nationality Act, which criminalizes blocking the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Last month, Trump nominated Bove for a vacancy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.