Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the Biden-Harris administration for failing to provide information that Republicans say is needed to verify the citizenship of 450,000 “potentially ineligible voters.” are.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and its Director, Ur Jadu, are named as defendants.
The federal lawsuit, filed in the Western District of Texas, says the Biden-Harris administration will abide by federal law and respond to “reasonable requests for information regarding citizenship status” from Paxton and Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson. He claims that he refused. There are more than 450,000 people on Texas' voter rolls, and the state cannot verify citizenship using existing sources. ”
Paxton said these more than 450,000 people did not use a Texas-issued driver's license or ID card to register to vote in Texas, and therefore “these voters have never had their citizenship verified. No,” he said.
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Mr. Nelson sent a letter to Mr. Jadu on September 18 requesting that the Texas Secretary of State's Office compile a list of persons whose citizenship could not be verified on the Texas voter rolls and requesting assistance in doing so. said.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is filing a lawsuit over voter citizenship checks. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
Mr. Paxton wrote a similar letter to the USCIS Director on October 7, stating: Whether any of the voters on the list are noncitizens who are ineligible to vote. ”
“The Systematic Alien Eligibility Verification (SAVE) program ensures the citizenship and immigration status of individuals, including voter registration and voter registration verification,” Jadu wrote in an Oct. 10 letter to Nelson. “This is the safest and most efficient way to confirm the situation.” and/or maintain voter lists,” and asserted that USCIS “currently cannot offer any alternative process to any state.”
“Since 2009, SAVE has been used by state election authorities for voter registration and voter list maintenance. Currently, 10 states have registered to use SAVE for these purposes,” said Jadu. he wrote. “The process has been the same since the inception of the program.”
“By entering an individual's name, a unique immigrant identifier issued by DHS, and date of birth, the registrar can determine whether the person obtained U.S. citizenship through the naturalization process or if the person was born abroad or otherwise “For a particular individual, USCIS can determine whether it has information that confirms their U.S. citizenship. Registration agencies will determine the best process to obtain the necessary identifiers,” Jaddou said. I explained. “State election officials must provide individuals who have not been certified as U.S. citizens through SAVE the opportunity to present documentation of their U.S. citizenship.”
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas was named as a defendant. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
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Paxton's lawsuit says that “pointing to the SAVE system” does not meet the requirements of the Texas Secretary of State, and that Jadu's response does not meet USCIS' “clear obligations under federal law.” There is.
It also said that Mr. Jadu had not responded to Mr. Paxton's letter.
According to Paxton, the SAVE program, designed to verify that an individual is legally present in the United States, is “not by itself useful for states seeking to verify the citizenship status of individuals on their voter rolls.” It's not the right tool.” That's because it requires the use of a “DHS-issued unique immigrant identifier,” which, according to the complaint, “is not maintained by the Texas Secretary of State or the Texas Voter Registrar and cannot be easily accessed.” “Information that is not available.”
Texas' statewide voter registration system “doesn't include” any DHS-issued immigrant IDs[s]”, the complaint states, so even if the Texas Secretary of State were able to “obtain this data from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the effort would not be able to use such data to obtain driver's licenses or personal identification cards.” It would be limited to individuals who provided information, which means it would not include individuals who do not have a Texas-issued driver's license or ID card number in the state's voter registration system.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services pointed to the SAVE program. (Beata Saursel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The filing also notes that USCIS charges users a fee for each certification submitted to the SAVE system, a fee that states are prepared to pay but that “will more than double over the next three years. “become”.
“Federal and state laws prohibit noncitizens from voting, but federal law paradoxically creates opportunities for noncitizens to illegally register to vote, while states must “It prohibits requiring proof of citizenship, which is a common-sense criterion. It is an illegal registration,” the complaint states. “This ban on federal citizenship checks makes little sense under any circumstances, but it is especially troubling given the scale of the current illegal immigration crisis.”
The filing also noted that the Senate has not passed the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act (the SAVE Act), which would “enable states to ensure that eligible voters cast their votes legally.”
Asked about Paxton's lawsuit, a DHS spokesperson again pointed to the SAVE program.
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“DHS does not comment on pending litigation,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement to FOX News Digital. “More broadly, USCIS is working with the State of Texas and will continue to communicate directly through official channels. The agency maintains an online information service called SAVE that allows the agency to “verify the citizenship or immigration status of a particular individual.” ”
Election-related lawsuits abound each quarter, and the state of Florida has filed a similar lawsuit alleging that the SAVE program's DHS identifier requirement is an obstacle to verifying the citizenship of people on its voter rolls. he claimed.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz may face a close race against his Democratic challenger, Rep. Colin Allred, in Texas, but the one-star state is unlikely to survive the presidential race.
