Senate Democrats seek answers on Trump overhaul of immigrant database to find noncitizen voters
As the Department of Homeland Security seeks to transform a federal database for immigrant benefits into a supercharged database to search for noncitizen voters, a trio of Democratic senators are pressing the department for more information.
Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday posing a series of questions around the department’s overhaul of the Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.
“States and nonpartisan voter advocacy organizations have expressed concerns with using the SAVE program as a standalone tool to determine voter eligibility without adequate safeguards,” the senators wrote. “In particular, there are concerns that data quality issues may cause state and local officials who rely on the program to receive false positives or incomplete results.”
The lawmakers’ comments echo many of the same concerns around SAVE that election officials and experts expressed to CyberScoop last month. For a variety of reasons — including SAVE’s clunky history, the fluid nature of immigration status and differing state data streams — the potential is high for the system to return false positives.
Further, the Trump administration has already attempted to force states to adopt White House policies around “proof of citizenship” requirements before sending them federal voter registration files. A federal judge ruled parts of that order were unconstitutional, and the administration is appealing.
One concerning scenario is that if the administration pushes states to use SAVE to update and maintain their voter rolls, many registered voters could be removed for lacking documentary proof of citizenship.
While a number of post-election audits and investigations have determined that noncitizen registration and voting is rare to nonexistent, it has also found that millions of eligible voters lack the kind of identification that the Trump administration is pushing.
The administration has been filing lawsuits and sending letters to states alleging that their voter registration policies are out of step with the Help America Vote Act, which provide funding to states for election security investments.
If successful, it could force millions of voters to obtain these credentials or lose their voting rights, all without the administration ever actually showing evidence that noncitizen voting is happening en masse.
The Democratic senators note that DHS and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service have not briefed Congress or state and local election officials about the changes, but they have held meetings with prominent election denier groups like the Election Integrity Network, according to reporting from Democracy Docket.
Much of the work on SAVE is happening outside of public view, with little transparency.. USCIS has declined or not responded to interview requests from reporters seeking additional details about the SAVE overhaul or how it will ensure accurate results.
“Public transparency and assurances that the Department is appropriately protecting citizens’ rights, including privacy, is extremely important,” the lawmakers wrote. “Unfortunately, DHS has not issued any of the routine and required documentation about the program’s operations and safeguards or issued any public notice or notice to Congress.”
The senators are requesting a briefing for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Rules and Administration committees, while turning over any materials shared with groups like the Election Integrity Network.
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