Washington:The US Justice Department has defended its list of more than 20,000 individuals it claims are noncitizens registered to vote in California. The department has accused an immigrant rights group of violating a court order by questioning the accuracy of the list.

According to Anadolu Agency – English, the dispute intensified following a recent ruling by US District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg. The ruling granted the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) access to the federal data but restricted the disclosure of names and limited its use to arguments about the group's legal standing.

In the United States, noncitizens are generally prohibited from voting in federal or state elections, including those in California. However, specific provisions in San Francisco allow eligible noncitizen parents and legal guardians of public school children to vote in local school board elections. This means the mere presence of a noncitizen on a voter registration list does not necessarily imply illegal registration.

CHIRLA's attorneys reported on Saturday that their analysis revealed over 40% of the individuals on the federal list were not found in California's voter registration records. They also identified 22 individuals likely to have been naturalized as US citizens and claimed the list included thousands who appeared to be US citizens.

The Justice Department contended that the analysis breached Boasberg's order as it did not pertain to the group's legal standing. The department suggested that the issue be referred for a potential investigation into criminal contempt of court. The department criticized the analysis for alleged political grandstanding, claiming it lacked relevance to the plaintiffs' standing in the case.

Alberto Lammers, spokesperson for the University of California, Los Angeles' Voting Rights Project, which conducted the analysis, refuted the allegations, asserting that the plaintiffs' counsel and experts fully complied with the court's orders.

In a related case, the Justice Department appealed a decision by US District Court Judge Trina L. Thompson, which prohibited federal officials from directing California election offices to remove suspected noncitizens from voter rolls. The case is scheduled for a hearing on Monday. Meanwhile, California election officials have argued that the federal list is fraught with errors and that there is insufficient time to undertake the legally required removal process. The administration maintains that the list was created by comparing state voter registration records with federal citizenship data.