The State of Florida and the Florida Department of State (FDOS) filed a lawsuit on October 16 against the Department of Homeland Security about non-citizens and the state’s voter rolls.  FDOS alleges that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) “denied FDOS’s request” for “verification of citizenship status for several identified individuals,” making it impossible to maintain accurate voter rolls.

On September 10, FDOS sent a letter to Tammy Meckley, associate director of Immigration Records and Identity Services Directorate of the USCIS, “requesting verification of citizenship status for several identified individuals,” according to the lawsuit.  However, the response that came back from USCIS was less than forthcoming.  The lawsuit alleges:

On October 10, 2024, FDOS received a response from Ur Jaddou, Director of USCIS. Ex. 3. In that letter, USCIS denied FDOS’s request for further information about the specific individuals in question and refused to offer any means of identifying immigration status beyond the SAVE program.

The plaintiffs ultimately argue that Florida not only is entitled to citizenship information, but also is required by law to remove non-citizens from its voter registration rolls.

Florida is smack-dab in the middle of Biden’s border crisis, which means the state almost surely has non-citizens on its rolls.  “Non-citizens, including permanent legal residents, cannot vote in federal, state, and most local elections,” by law.

The Biden administration has contributed to Florida’s border crisis in numerous ways, not the least of which is unlawfully expanding the definition of asylum law and, according to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), making Florida central in its “direct-flights parole-and-release program, tallying at nearly 326,000 of the initial arrivals from inception through February” 2024.

The 2020 election and Biden’s border policies have made voter roll accuracy a huge focus in the run-up to the 2024 election.  After all, accurate voter rolls are foundational to clean and fair elections.

In a column I wrote for True the Vote (TTV) about non-citizen voting, I spoke with founder Catherine Engelbrecht about her 611 Project.  Engelbrecht explained that historically, public policy and the lack of federally centralized election administration have made it easier for non-citizens to land on the nation’s voter rolls.

According to Engelbrecht, the way non-citizens might end up on voter rolls include the following:

• “Errors in voter registration processes…when an illegal applies for a driver’s license and checks off the ‘register to vote’ box.”
• It may happen “through misunderstanding or lack of information.  Many non-citizens pay taxes, have green cards, or have been in the country for years.” Confusion arises because they lack information, and according to Engelbrecht, “their confusion is supported by the numerous organizations that mail out voter registrations and absentee ballot request forms.”
• Non-citizens may “[assume] eligibility because of local laws. Some jurisdictions allow non-citizens to vote in local elections under specific conditions but are not permitted to vote in federal elections.”
• Intentional illegal voting to influence the outcome of an election is another vector for fraud.  Engelbrecht says it can also occur because of “[m]isrepresentation or fraud[.] ... [N]on-citizens might deliberately misrepresent their citizenship status to register and vote in elections.”

As I commented in the TTV article, “[t]his type of behavior is illegal and subject to severe penalties, but it often goes unpunished, which in turn encourages the behavior to continue.”

Some of the difficulty in identifying citizenship status has to do with the history of using the SAVE program in Florida.  SAVE is administered by USCIS and allows “registered federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local government agencies to verify immigration status and naturalized/acquired U.S. citizenship of applicants seeking benefits or licenses.”

The Florida lawsuit alleges that before 2012, the federal government “refused to make the SAVE program available to the State of Florida to protect the integrity of its elections.”  However, FDOS sued DHS, and the two entities entered into a “memorandum of understanding” allowing “FDOS to access the SAVE program to verify citizenship and immigration status” for the state’s voter rolls.

The main barrier to identification is often the absence of a “unique identifier” that is needed to conduct a SAVE inquiry.  Just as Engelbrecht stated above, the lack of information makes it difficult to properly identify one’s eligibility to vote.  The Florida lawsuit alleges that USCIS refused to cooperate in identifying individuals who may be non-citizens.

Specifically, the lawsuit states that USCIS refused to assist “through other means” even though DHS has “readily accessible information apart from the SAVE program that is responsive to Florida’s inquiries.”  So, for whatever perplexing reason, DHS has made it exceedingly difficult for Florida’s election officials to accurately confirm voter eligibility even though DHS has the information the state needs to legally remove those individuals from the rolls.

The State of Florida and FDOS believe not only that they have “a clear right” to the information, but also that USCIS has “a clear duty to act.”  Attorney General Ashley Moody announced the lawsuit in an October 17 press release.  Moody affirmed her commitment to ensuring that “only American citizens are registered to vote” in Florida for the upcoming election.

Moody also expressed concerns over the Biden-Harris administration’s open borders policies that have allowed “millions of illegal immigrants into the country.”  Not only has USCIS failed to cooperate with the state, but the influx of illegal aliens almost guarantees that non-citizens have been thrown into the mix, making it even more difficult to “maintain the integrity of [the] state’s voter rolls” before 2024’s historic presidential election.

Image: woodleywonderworks via Flickr, CC BY 2.0.