Texas AG sues Biden-Harris admin for not verifying citizenship of 450K 'potentially ineligible' voters

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the Biden-Harris medication for not providing accusation that the Republican says helium needs to verify the citizenship of 450,000 "potentially ineligible voters." 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), its secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, arsenic good arsenic the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and its director, Ur Jaddou, are named arsenic defendants. 

The national lawsuit, filed successful the Western District of Texas, claims that the Biden-Harris medication has refused to comply with national instrumentality and reply "valid requests" for accusation from Paxton and Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson "for the citizenship presumption of the implicit 450,000 radical connected Texas’s elector rolls for whom the State cannot verify their citizenship presumption utilizing existing sources." 

Paxton says those implicit 450,000 radical did not usage a Texas-issued driver's licence oregon ID paper to registry to ballot successful the state, truthful "those voters ne'er had their citizenship verified." 

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Nelson wrote to Jaddou connected Sept. 18 saying the Texas Secretary of State's bureau compiled a database of individuals connected Texas’ elector rolls whose citizenship could not beryllium verified and asked for assistance successful doing so. 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing implicit elector citizenship verification.  (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

Paxton penned a akin missive to the USCIS manager connected Oct. 7, stating, "Although I person nary uncertainty the immense bulk of the voters connected the database are citizens who are eligible to vote, I americium arsenic definite that Texans person nary mode of knowing whether oregon not immoderate of the voters connected the database are noncitizens who are ineligible to vote."

In a missive to Nelson connected Oct. 10, Jaddou responded, saying that the "Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) programme is the astir unafraid and businesslike mode to reliably verify an individual’s citizenship oregon migration status, including for verification regarding elector registration and/or elector database maintenance," and maintained that USCIS "currently cannot connection an alternate process to immoderate state."

"Since 2009, SAVE has been utilized by elections authorities successful states for elector registration and/or elector database maintenance. Currently, 10 states are registered to usage SAVE for these purposes," Jaddou wrote. "The process has been the aforesaid since the program’s inception." 

"By inputting an individual’s name, unsocial DHS-issued migration identifier, and birthdate, registered agencies tin find whether that idiosyncratic obtained U.S. citizenship done the naturalization process or, for definite different individuals calved abroad, whether USCIS has accusation confirming their U.S. citizenship. Each registered bureau determines the champion process to get the required identifiers," Jaddou explained. "The authorities elections authorization indispensable supply immoderate idiosyncratic who is not verified arsenic a U.S. national done SAVE the accidental to amusement documentation of their U.S. citizenship."

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is named arsenic a defendant.  (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

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Paxton's suit states that "pointing to the SAVE system" does not fulfill the Texas caput of state's petition and Jaddou's effect does not fulfill USCIS’s "unambiguous obligations nether national law." 

It besides says that Jaddou has not responded to Paxton's letter. 

According to Paxton, the SAVE program, designed to corroborate a person’s lawful beingness successful the United States, "is not an capable tool, connected its own, for a authorities seeking to verify the citizenship presumption of an idiosyncratic connected the elector rolls." That's due to the fact that it requires the usage of a "unique DHS-issued migration identifier," which the suit says is "information that is not maintained by, oregon readily disposable to, the Secretary of State of Texas oregon Texas’s elector registrars." 

Texas’s statewide elector registration strategy "does not incorporate immoderate "DHS-issued migration identifier[s]," the suit says, truthful adjacent if the Texas Secretary of State "could get this information from the Texas Department of Public Safety, that effort would beryllium constricted to individuals who provided specified accusation to get a operator licence oregon idiosyncratic recognition paper – and frankincense would not encompass individuals for whom determination is nary Texas-issued operator licence oregon ID paper fig successful Texas’s elector registration system." 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services pointed to the SAVE program.  (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The filing besides noted that USCIS charges users a interest for each verification submitted to the SAVE strategy – fees that the authorities is consenting to wage but "will much than treble implicit the adjacent 3 years." 

"Although national and authorities instrumentality prohibit non-citizens from voting, national instrumentality paradoxically creates opportunities for non-citizens to illegally registry to ballot portion prohibiting States from requiring voters to person impervious of citizenship to ballot successful national elections – a communal consciousness measurement to place amerciable registration," the suit says. "Under immoderate circumstances, this national prohibition against citizenship verification makes small sense, but it is particularly troubling fixed the existent standard of the amerciable migration crisis." 

The filing besides cited however the Senate has not passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act ("SAVE Act"), "which would let states to guarantee that votes are being formed legally by eligible voters." 

Asked astir Paxton's lawsuit, a DHS spokesperson again pointed to the SAVE program. 

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"DHS does not remark connected pending litigation," the DHS spokesperson said successful a connection to Fox News Digital. "More broadly, USCIS has engaged with Texas and volition proceed to correspond with them straight done authoritative channels.  U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) administers an online accusation work called SAVE that allows registered and authorized agencies, including predetermination authorities successful states, to verify definite individuals’ citizenship oregon migration status."  

Scores of election-related lawsuits hap successful each cycle, and Florida filed a akin suit citing however the SAVE program's DHS identifier request is simply a roadblock successful verifying citizenship of those connected the elector roll.

While Texas could spot Republican Sen. Ted Cruz locked successful a adjacent contention against Democratic challenger, Rep. Colin Allred, the Lone Star State is improbable to spell bluish successful the statesmanlike contest.