Texas Uses SAVE Data To Catch Noncitizen Voters
(Texas Scorecard) – After gaining access to a federal immigration and citizenship database, state officials have identified potential noncitizens who voted in Texas elections.
Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson announced Thursday that her office has referred 33 potential noncitizens who voted in the November 2024 General Election to the state attorney general's office for investigation.
Nelson said the referrals come within weeks of Texas gaining access to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' SAVE database.
'Gaining access to this database has been a game-changer,' said Nelson. 'Not only have we been able to identify individuals who should not have voted in the last election, we have also been able to confirm naturalization of dozens more.'
SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) is an online service for government agencies to verify the immigration status and naturalized/acquired U.S. citizenship of applicants seeking benefits or licenses.
Nelson said Texas was among the first states to log in after President Donald Trump issued an election integrity executive order in March that directed the Department of Homeland Security to provide free access to the SAVE database to all states.
She added that Texas also recently joined a pilot program working with DHS, USCIS, and DOGE to improve the database's functionality.
'We are in the early stages of this pilot program, but we already see promising results. This may be the most current and accurate data set there is when it comes to citizenship verification,' said Nelson.
She noted that the Secretary of State is required to report potential criminal violations to the Office of the Attorney General, which has the authority to investigate such cases under Texas election law.
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