By Natalia Mittelstadt | AMAC Outside Contributor
Three states led by Republicans have gone on the offensive against the Biden administration by suing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over access to information to verify the citizenship status of registered voters. So far, the Biden/Harris White House is stonewalling the efforts at maintaining voter integrity.
While the Biden administration is suing states and towns across the country in an effort to thwart election integrity measures ahead of the presidential election, the states of Ohio, Florida, and Texas are going on the offensive by suing DHS in an effort to gain access to a database to identify non-citizens on voter rolls.
The Department of Justice has sued both Alabama and Virginia for attempting to remove non-citizens from their voter rolls less than 90 days before the election. However, as Ohio, Florida, and Texas are maintaining their voter rolls, the states filed lawsuits against DHS to further identify and remove non-citizens from voter registration lists.
DHS refuses to cooperate
Federal law only allows U.S. citizens to vote in federal elections, which all three states noted in their lawsuits against DHS. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) sued DHS on Thursday, alleging that the agency has stonewalled his efforts to find and remove non-citizens from his state’s voter rolls.
The lawsuit alleges that DHS refused to provide Ohio access to federal citizenship verification records to identify non-citizens on its voter rolls on at least four different occasions.
LaRose first asked DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in July “for access to federal databases and search tools, including the Person Centric Query Service (‘PCQS’), to ensure that Ohio could verify the citizenship of specific registered voters whose citizenship may be the subject of dispute,” according to the lawsuit.
Ohio uses DHS’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database, which allows non-citizens to be identified by “specific immigration identification numbers (like an Alien Registration Number) that States like Ohio rarely possess,” the lawsuit states.
However, “PCQS draws from a much broader array of identification information, making it far easier for State officials to confirm citizenship status without having to use one of those unique immigration identifiers that States rarely possess,” the lawsuit reads.
“I swore an oath to uphold our state constitution, and that document clearly requires that only United States citizens can participate in Ohio elections,” LaRose said in a statement on Thursday. “The Biden-Harris Administration is engaging in obstruction and outright abuse of power to prevent us from removing noncitizens from our voter rolls. I take my duty seriously, so if they want a fight over the integrity of our elections, they’ve got it.”
“While the administration is blocking access to these records, the Department of Justice is suing or threatening to sue multiple states, including Ohio, who are trying to enforce their citizenship voting requirements,” he added. “It’s hardly a coincidence. The same administration that’s presided over the most reckless, porous immigration policy in our country’s history is also intentionally blocking states from protecting the integrity of their elections.
”In September, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent a letter to Mayorkas demanding information about why the DHS had not complied with LaRose’s requests to get federal citizenship information.
Earlier this month, sixteen attorneys general, led by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) and South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson (R), called on Mayorkas to provide federal citizenship verification records for voter registration verification.
“[T]he Department of Homeland Security is required to coordinate with States to verify voter registration information upon request,” the letter reads. “This federal-state cooperation is mandatory—not optional.”
Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming joined the letter.
Ohio has identified and indicted non-citizen voters in recent months. Last week, six of the nearly 140 people referred to by LaRose for illegal voting were indicted for voter fraud.
Five of the indictments involved legal U.S. permanent residents without citizenship. The sixth involved a non-citizen who was accused of voting in 2014, 2016, and 2018. Only two of the indictments involved the 2020 election.
In May, LaRose directed all 88 counties to begin a removal process for non-citizens on Ohio’s voter rolls following a review by his office’s Public Integrity Division and Office of Data Analytics and Archives. The review analyzed data from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and found 137 voter registrations of non-citizens who had twice confirmed their lack of U.S. citizenship. In August, LaRose directed county election officials Thursday to remove another 499 non-citizens registered to vote from the state’s voter rolls.
Prior to Ohio’s lawsuit, Florida sued DHS two days after the letter was sent from the 16 attorneys general to Mayorkas.
The state argues in the lawsuit that the Florida Department of State (FDOS) “identified a number of individuals for whom FDOS had evidence of non-citizenship but could not run a search on the SAVE database because FDOS does not have unique immigration identifiers for these individuals.”
Feds refuse to verify citizenship for voting
DHS allegedly denied Florida’s request for federal citizenship verification records, according to the lawsuit. However, the agency is “obligated” under federal law “to provide that information to Florida,” the lawsuit states.
Meanwhile, Texas sued DHS last week, after attempting to get the agency to verify the citizenship of approximately 450,000 voters.
DHS allegedly refused the state’s request for information, which Texas argues is in violation of federal law.
“The Biden-Harris Administration has refused to comply with federal law, presenting yet another obstacle for Texas to overcome in ensuring free and fair elections in our state,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said in a statement. “The law demands that they provide important information regarding the citizenship of nearly half a million potentially ineligible voters. Since the Biden-Harris Administration has chosen to ignore the law, I will see them in court.”
DHS told Just the News on Tuesday: “DHS does not comment on pending litigation. More broadly, USCIS has engaged with Florida, Ohio, and Texas, and will continue to correspond with them directly through official channels. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) administers an online information service called SAVE that allows registered and authorized agencies, including election authorities in states, to verify certain individuals’ citizenship or immigration status.
“SAVE is the most secure and efficient way to verify an individual’s citizenship or immigration status, including for verification regarding voter registration and/or voter list maintenance. By inputting an individual’s name, unique DHS-issued immigration identifier, and birthdate, registered agencies can determine whether that person has obtained U.S. citizenship through the naturalization process or, for certain other individuals born abroad, whether USCIS has information confirming their U.S. citizenship.
“Federal law prohibits non-U.S. citizens from registering and voting in Federal elections; violators are removable and face up to five years in prison.”
In August, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced that more than 1 million ineligible voters have been removed from voter rolls since 2021. Of those, more than 6,500 non-citizens were found, and about 1,930 of them have voted nonetheless. The records of those 1,930 voters were being sent to Paxton’s office from the secretary of state’s office for investigation.
