Politics
Immigrant rights group sues Trump administration over voter roll database checks
A federal lawsuit seeks to stop Homeland Security from cross-referencing voter rolls with federal databases, arguing the practice risks disenfranchising naturalized citizens.
The short version
- The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights filed a federal lawsuit to halt the Trump administration from matching voter rolls against federal databases.
- The legal challenge contends the checks rely on flawed data that unconstitutionally targets naturalized citizens and could improperly purge eligible voters.
- The Department of Homeland Security defended the effort as a straightforward measure to prevent noncitizens from voting and protect election integrity.
- The case is pending in U.S. District Court in Washington, alongside disputes over federal requests for state-level voter registration data.
Key facts
- The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, represented by the UCLA Voting Rights Project, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington against the Trump administration.[Associated Press · ABC News]
- The lawsuit asks the court to halt the administration's review of California voter lists, rescind federal requests for voter data, and declare the database matching unconstitutional.[Associated Press · ABC News]
- A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson stated the agency cross-referenced publicly available state voter rolls with immigration records to prevent vote dilution by noncitizens.[Associated Press · ABC News]
- The Department of Homeland Security claimed without providing supporting evidence that roughly 250,000 noncitizens could be registered across four states, including over 190,000 in California.[Associated Press · ABC News]
- California Secretary of State Shirley Weber questioned the federal figures, noting that California had not provided its statewide voter registration records to DHS or other federal agencies.[Associated Press · ABC News]
- In June, a federal judge prohibited the use of an upgraded version of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program over concerns about improper voter roll purges.[Associated Press · ABC News]
What remains uncertain
- It remains unverified which specific federal datasets the Trump administration used to calculate its estimates of noncitizens on state voter rolls.[Associated Press · ABC News]