Texas removes thousands of noncitizens from voter rolls

The Immigration Accountability Project has been working alongside other allied organizations as part of the Only Citizens Vote Coalition. The Coalition’s goal is to educate Americans on the issue of noncitizens voting in our elections and to pass legislation that would require documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

The Coalition has championed legislation introduced by Rep. Chip Roy in the House and Sen. Mike Lee in the Senate—the SAVE Act. The SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship at the time of registration and require states to develop a plan to remove noncitizens from their rolls. Part of the plan to remove noncitizens from voter rolls involves using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system (not to be confused with the SAVE Act), which is run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

This week, Texas proved how invaluable the SAVE system is as an election-integrity tool. Texas identified and removed more than 2,700 noncitizens from its voter rolls by running the rolls through the SAVE system. 

In fact, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson verified more than 18 million voters through the SAVE system, identifying noncitizen voters in 254 counties across the state.

The SAVE system is primarily used by states to verify the eligibility of noncitizens for public benefits. However, under the Trump Administration, USCIS has been upgrading the system so that it can also be used by states to help clean up their voter rolls by verifying the citizenship status of individual voters.

The SAVE Act was passed with bipartisan support in the House of Representatives earlier in the year, but has yet to come to the floor for a vote in the Senate.

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• Rep. Sam Liccardo (D, CA-16)
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While these lawmakers seem satisfied with the status quo, we know that the H-1B program desperately needs reform. Last week, our Legal Analyst, Jared Culver, wrote an article about the Chamber’s lawsuit—and the obvious errors in it. He concluded that the President has clear authority under the law to impose necessary restrictions on the entry of any alien or class of aliens.

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Next Week

The government remains closed after 12 bipartisan Senate votes failed to pass the clean continuing resolution. The Senate will return Monday, and the House’s return likely will depend on whether the Senate is able to reopen the government.