Last November, Americans sent a clear message to the Swamp that they were done with the era of the leftist open border agenda. Since then, we’ve seen at least one person take this message to heart: President Donald J. Trump.
It didn’t take long, but our border is already more secure than it ever was over the last four years. Border encounters have plummeted, with just over 28,000 in February — a noticeable drop from the more than 250,000 this time last year under Joe Biden. Simply put, President Trump has done his part in beginning to protect America from mass illegal immigration.
But he didn’t stop there. With the signing of his new Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections Executive Order, President Trump has set the tone on illegal immigrant voting here in America. With this order, the President is mandating that there be “documentary proof of United States citizenship” when registering to vote in our country. It’s a significant step toward election integrity and further disincentivizing illegal immigration.
Now, it’s time for Congress to do their part. We need to codify these measures throughout America and make it the law of the land.
It’s clear we need massive change to undo what Biden did. Voters certainly thought so. They didn’t just check the box for Trump but overwhelmingly for America First candidates to safeguard our institutions from this threat.
One simple way to do that is to ensure that not one of those millions of illegal immigrants Biden let in is able to make their way to America’s voting booths.
The Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act would prevent exactly that, backing up President Trump’s executive order to require proof of citizenship when voting in U.S. elections. It’s a commonsense solution to a big problem. Until President Trump’s recent executive order, there was no citizenship question on the federal voting form. This leaves the integrity of our voting system at serious risk.
The Left likes to write efforts like this off as a conspiracy theory. Yet, at the same time, they push efforts of their own to allow non-citizen voting. In New York, it took the state’s top court to step in and stop New York City from letting illegal immigrants flood the polls.
It should go without saying that only Americans should be voting in American elections. Every non-citizen who votes cancels out the vote of one American citizen. Now, picture this happening on an even bigger scale, not just in New York City but entire states. It’s not out of the realm of possibility.
According to the America First Policy Institute, this issue is real and widespread. In the leadup to the last election, more than 16,000 non-citizens were removed from voter rolls in just three states: Texas, Alabama, and Virginia. We are fortunate that at least a few states prioritize election integrity. Do you think blue state leaders are doing the same? Of course not.
The Left has not only proven they are willing to look the other way but, in fact, go the extra mile when given the chance to ensure illegal immigrants can vote. When the Justice Department was in the hands of the Biden Administration, they even went as far as to sue the state of Virginia for their efforts to clean up their voter rolls and prevent non-citizen voting.
American elections shouldn’t be run on an honor system where we cross our fingers and hope the Left’s leaders do the right thing. They’ve proven they won’t.
Voters gave Republicans the mantle to secure our elections once and for all. We can’t afford for Congress to waste it, making President Trump battle this alone. The SAVE Act is the commonsense measure voters have been waiting for.
We want our elections to be a battle of ideas between Americans. Yet we risk losing that forever by allowing those who come here illegally to weigh in on Election Day. The SAVE Act keeps American elections in Americans’ hands. No reasonable member of Congress should oppose that.
Ashley Hayek is President of America First Works, former 2020 Trump Campaign Coalitions Director, and author of Beat the Elites.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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