These letters come in response to the significant increase in illegal immigration under the Biden administration, which has overseen an unprecedented border crisis. By the end of this fiscal year, border patrol authorities are projected to have encountered 10 million illegal immigrants since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting or registering to vote in federal elections. However, as recently as last month, 49 states were found to be providing voter registration forms to migrants without requiring proof of citizenship. Some jurisdictions have even passed legislation allowing illegal immigrants to vote. For instance, New York enacted a law in 2021 permitting foreign nationals to vote in local elections, although this legislation was later struck down following legal challenges. The New York City Council has appealed to the state’s highest court to reverse these rulings. In December, Boston’s city council passed legislation allowing noncitizens with “legal status” the ability to vote. According to the Boston Herald, 15 other municipalities across the country have taken actions to allow foreign nationals voting rights, including Maryland, New York City, San Francisco, and Vermont. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) created federal voter registration forms that do not require applicants to show proof of citizenship. The form operates on the honor system, requiring applicants to attest “under penalty of perjury” that they are a U.S. citizen. However, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling determined that because the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) mandates states to use the EAC form and forbids states from requiring proof of citizenship, anyone can register to vote without providing documentation of their citizenship. AFL asserts that two federal statutes passed nearly 30 years ago provide state officials with the means to verify citizenship or immigration status for any person, thus offering a legal solution for ensuring voter eligibility.America First Legal (AFL) has sent a letter to the top election official, governor, and attorney general in each state outlining how to use two federal statutes to ensure that only U.S. citizens vote in elections.
8 U.S.C. § 1373(c) Under this statute, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must respond to requests from any federal, state, or local government agency seeking to verify the citizenship or immigration status of any person within the requestor’s jurisdiction. 8 U.S.C. § 1644 Under this law, DHS is required to respond to the information request seeking immigration or citizenship status, and the federal, state, or local authority requesting the information cannot be prohibited or restricted from receiving it. “States have the utmost authority, obligation, and expectation from the American people to prevent noncitizens from voting in elections,” Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Executive Director, said in a statement about the election integrity effort. “Congress has equipped States with the tools necessary to verify the citizenship status of registered voters and remove ineligible foreign nationals – but States must act swiftly to ensure that only citizens vote in this fall’s elections,” he added. “Failing to use these available tools is an abdication of the responsibility to ensure our elections are decided solely by, and for, the American people.” AFL President Stephen Miller said in the statement, in response to the historic flooding of migrants into the U.S., AFL is releasing this “emergency action plan to election officials in all fifty states explaining the steps they can immediately pursue to defend democracy by purging their voting rolls of illegal aliens and non-citizens.” He added, “Any leader who wishes to protect the franchise of their citizens must act to implement these recommendations with haste. There is no time to spare. Patriotic officials must act at once to stop Biden’s illegals from voting — and this action plan from AFL tells them exactly what they must do.”
