The Biden administration released a policy statement condemning the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
The SAVE Act calls for proof of citizenship for participation in federal elections.
In a policy statement, the Biden administration wrote that it “strongly opposes” the bill, saying that it is “already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections—it is a Federal crime punishable by prison and fines.”
“The alleged justification for this bill is based on easily disproven falsehoods. Additionally, making a false claim of citizenship or unlawfully voting in an election is punishable by removal from the United States and a permanent bar to admission. States already have effective safeguards in place to verify voters’ eligibility and maintain the accuracy of voter rolls,” the statement reads. “This bill would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but it would make it much harder for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged from voter rolls. The evidence is clear that the current laws to prevent noncitizen voting are working as intended—it is extraordinarily rare for noncitizens to break the law by voting in Federal elections.”
The statement added that if “House Republicans really want to do something about securing our border and fixing our broken immigration system, they should vote on the border deal that the President negotiated with a bipartisan group of Senators—this would provide immigration officials the resources they need to do their jobs and be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border that we have seen in decades.”
The office of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) released a 22-page document detailing the bill.
It reads: “While falsely claiming the 2016 [election] was ‘stolen’ due to ‘foreign election interference,’ Democrats ignore the real threat of foreign election interference posed when noncitizens are allowed to register and vote in U.S. elections.”
It goes on to list “ample evidence” that non-U.S. citizens are participating in elections. For example, in states like Massachusetts, Ohio, and Virginia, “noncitizens have recently been removed from the voting rolls – and many of those noncitizens had voted.”
“Congress must pass the SAVE Act to close the loopholes that have allowed noncitizen voting, to enhance election security, to reduce the risk of foreign election interference, and to restore Americans’ confidence in U.S. elections,” the document concludes.
