Lawyers urge judge to block Trump order that would create eligible voter list, limit mail ballots

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he issued an executive order to restrict voters’ ability to cast ballots by mail, attorneys for Democrats and civil rights groups told a federal judge on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols didn’t rule from the bench on the plaintiffs’ request for an order blocking officials from implementing Trump’s March 31 order, his second related to elections since winning his second term in the White House. The case is one of multiple lawsuits filed to block the order on the grounds that only states and Congress, and not the president, are given power under the Constitution to decide how elections are run.

Trump's initial executive order to revamp elections by requiring documentary proof of citizenship, issued last year, was largely halted by multiplefederal judges on similar grounds. He issued his latest order only after the voting bill he backed stalled in Congress. The current legal fight comes as the country is in the midst of primary elections and election officials are preparing for the intricacies of holding the fall's midterm elections.

“I understand the time pressure here,” said Nichols, who questioned both sides but gave no clear indication of which way he's leaning.

The president can’t rewrite election rules to give himself and the Republican Party a partisan advantage, the plaintiffs’ attorneys said. They argued that the executive order’s requirements are illegal and designed to coerce states into limiting voter registration and ballot access.

“It is harming our clients every day in the middle of an election season,” said Orion Nevers, an attorney representing the NAACP.

Democrats are more likely to vote by mail. Since even before his 2020 loss, Trump has falsely implied there is mass fraud involved in the practice and fought to curtail it, even after his baseless claims led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and were repeatedly debunked by audits and reviews, including some run by Republicans.

Since returning to office, Trump has said he wants Republicans to “take over” elections in Democratic areas and launched investigations of the 2020 vote.

His latest executive order calls on the Department of Homeland Security to make a list of eligible voters in each state and seeks to prohibit the U.S. Postal Service from sending absentee ballots to those not on each state’s approved list.

The administration is asking the judge to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims. Justice Department attorney Stephen Pezzi on Thursday suggested that the litigation is premature, calling it “shadowboxing” for the plaintiffs to challenge a list that hasn’t yet been created.

“It’s a little hard to address these questions in the abstract,” Pezzi said.

Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, asked Pezzi why it would be lawful to disseminate the list to states.

“I think it would be the plaintiffs’ burden to explain why it’s unlawful,” Pezzi replied. “I don’t mean to be cute with that answer.”

Trump’s executive order requires federal agencies to compile a list of adults the U.S. government has purportedly “confirmed” to be U.S. citizens and to share it with each state at least 60 days before each federal election.

“There isn’t a way to lawfully compile it,” said Lalitha Madduri, an attorney for Democratic Party plaintiffs.

Danielle Lang, who represents the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the executive order is aimed at creating “the maximum amount of chaos and confusion” for local election officials.

“They need clear direction,” Lang said.

Riccardi reported from Denver.

Megan Green fills out her ballot in the Nebraska Primary Election at Omaha Community Playhouse Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)

Six people who were found dead in a rail yard shipping container in Laredo, Texas, were from Honduras and Mexico and included a 14-year-old boy, all part of a human smuggling effort on a freight train, authorities said Thursday.

Police released more details about the discovery made Sunday in Laredo, near the U.S. border with Mexico, but said federal authorities were leading the investigation.

“They did not pass away in our city, but they were discovered here after hours of suffering,” Laredo Mayor Victor Treviño said at a news conference. “We are demanding justice for these lives lost. It doesn’t matter where they came from."

The bodies were discovered by a Union Pacific employee. The Webb County medical examiner suspects the deaths were caused by hyperthermia, or heat stroke, a conclusion repeated by the mayor on Thursday.

The six people were put in the shipping container on Saturday in Del Rio, Texas, two days after the train departed from Long Beach, California, Laredo Police Chief Miguel Rodriguez Jr. said.

He said the train traveled to the San Antonio area from Del Rio before arriving Sunday in Laredo. Laredo is a busy land port for trade on the U.S.-Mexico border and a common nexus for the illegal movement of people.

“We did not know what we had at the beginning. We did not know that it was a human smuggling situation,” said Rodriguez, who declined to release further details about the route.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said he believes a seventh person in the group also died. The body of a 49-year-old Mexican man was found Monday in the San Antonio area, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Laredo.

“He may have been either thrown from the train after being found deceased or fell from the train and (died) as a result,” Salazar told reporters earlier this week.

The sheriff also disclosed that San Antonio police took a call Saturday from a relative of someone in the shipping container who had been informed about the oppressive conditions. Salazar said police were dispatched but didn't find the container.

“This is my estimate: 120, 150 degrees inside these things,” he said of heat (topping 48 degrees Celsius).

Smuggling on trains has long been a concern partly because trains headed to the United States often slow or stop in Mexico before crossing the border. That creates an opportunity for smugglers or immigrants to climb aboard or hide drugs or other contraband on a train before it enters the U.S.

Two smugglers last year were sentenced to life in prison for what remains the nation’s deadliest human smuggling attempt across the U.S.-Mexico border. They were convicted in the deaths of 53 migrants found in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer in Texas in 2022.

About 40 people were encountered daily in March crossing illegally by Border Patrol agents in Laredo, making it the third busiest sector among nine along the border with Mexico, according to the agency’s statistics.

In this image taken from video footage provided by KGNS, the Port Laredo Intermodal Terminal sign stands outside a rail yard in Laredo, Texas, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (KGNS via AP)

In this image taken from video footage provided by KGNS, Union Pacific train cars are stationed at a rail yard in Laredo, Texas, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (KGNS via AP)