The Trump administration is unrolling a new initiative Thursday that will help prevent noncitizens from voting in U.S. elections, a high-priority policy for the White House.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is updating the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program and partnering with the Social Security Administration in order to ensure “a single, reliable source for verifying immigration status and U.S. citizenship,” according to a memo exclusively shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. Under the update, state and local officials will be able to input Social Security numbers for verification of U.S. citizenship and thereby prevent foreign nationals from voting in American elections.
“For years, states have pleaded for tools to help identify and stop aliens from hijacking our elections,” USCIS Spokesman Matthew Tragesser said in a statement provided to the DCNF.
“Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Noem, USCIS is moving quickly to eliminate voter fraud,” Tragesser continued. “We expect further improvements soon and remain committed to restoring trust in American elections.”
SAVE, an online service administered by USCIS, allows various government agencies to verify the immigration status or U.S. naturalization of applicants seeking benefits or licenses.
The new partnership allows government agencies to create cases in SAVE using an applicant’s Social Security number rather than a Department of Homeland Security identifying number, which is not collected by a majority of state and local agencies, according to a separate news release. Additionally, agencies for the first time will be able to submit more than one case at a time, streamlining the process.
The new tool’s unveiling drew praise from the Tennessee secretary of state’s office, which has been involved in a select group of states providing testing and feedback on these verification updates.
“I commend President Trump and his team for building a super tool for election officials to identify and remove ineligible voters,” Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett said in a statement provided to the DCNF. “I predict this system, once fully developed, will be a game changer for election officials.”
“President Trump’s super election integrity tool means if you are an ineligible registered voter in Tennessee, we will find you,” Hargett said.
Polling indicates that basic voter protection regulations, such as requiring a photo ID to vote and providing proof of citizenship when registering to vote for the first time, are incredibly popular among Americans.
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has prioritized reforms to keep noncitizens out of U.S. elections. The president in March signed Executive Order 14248, Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections, which aims to protect voting systems from fraud, systemic error and foreign influence.
Trump has also voiced strong support for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, legislation sponsored by Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy that would require states to obtain proof of citizenship prior to registering an individual for any federal election and also requires state officials to remove all noncitizens from existing voter rolls. That bill passed the House in April, with only four Democrat lawmakers voting in favor of it.
Despite pushback from Democrats who claim GOP concerns over noncitizen voting is overblown, numerous high-profile cases of foreign participation in U.S. elections have been documented in recent months.
Federal prosecutors in April charged two Ukrainian nationals — 53-year-old Svitlana Demydenko and her 22-year-old daughter, Yelyzaveta Demydenko — with unlawfully voting in the 2024 presidential election. Akeel Abdul Jamiel — a 45-year-old Iraqi national — was accused by federal prosecutors that same month of participating in the 2020 presidential election.
State officials in Texas, Alabama, Virginia and Ohio identified as many as 17,000 noncitizens on state voting rolls and worked to remove them from the books ahead of the 2024 general election. America First Legal, a Washington, D.C.-based group aligned with the Trump administration, sued Maricopa County, Arizona, in August after the county recorder allegedly failed to purge 35,000 registered voters who did not provide proof of U.S. citizenship.
The Trump administration hinted at more updates to come in the future.
“USCIS will continue to improve and add more capability and functionality to SAVE,” the USCIS news release reads. “Providing more tools within SAVE ensures state and local governments have robust and reliable access to federal databases to confirm the U.S. citizenship of individuals on their voting rolls and registering to vote, in support of [Trump’s executive order].”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include comment from Tennessee secretary of state’s office.
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