Texas Sues Federal Government for Not Handing Over Voter Citizenship Information

Texas authorities are seeking the immigration and citizenship status of hundreds of thousands of people who do not have a Texas driver’s license or ID card.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during a meeting in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 23, 2024. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Texas authorities on Oct. 22 sued the federal government for not turning over requested citizenship records for about 450,000 people, whom they claim might be registered to vote despite being noncitizens.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson have been seeking records from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The USCIS has declined to provide information beyond access to a database called SAVE, which requires a unique number, known as an immigration identifier, for each person.

“We currently cannot offer an alternative process” to verify whether a person is a citizen, USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou told Nelson in an Oct. 10 letter filed with the court.

However, not providing information on people for whom Texas authorities do not have an identifier violates federal law, Paxton and Nelson said in the new complaint.

“Defendants’ decision to use only the SAVE program to respond to inquiries ... —even though they possess additional information not available through that program, and even though Plaintiffs do not have the information necessary to make requests for information through that program—is contrary to their statutory obligations,” the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in Pecos, states.

One law requires the federal government to “respond to an inquiry by a Federal, State, or local government agency, seeking to verify or ascertain the citizenship or immigration status of any individual within the jurisdiction of the agency for any purpose authorized by law, by providing the requested verification or status information.”

Another states, “Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal, State, or local law, a Federal, State, or local government entity or official may not prohibit, or in any way restrict, any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.”

Texas authorities are asking the court to order DHS and USCIS to provide the immigration and citizenship status for the hundreds of thousands of individuals who lack a Texas driver’s license or identification card. They also want a declaration that they are entitled to receive prompt responses in the future to such inquiries.

Earlier this month, Florida filed a similar lawsuit after federal officials declined to provide information beyond SAVE.

USCIS did not respond to a request for comment.

A DHS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

“More broadly, USCIS has engaged with Texas and will continue to correspond with them directly through official channels,” the spokesperson said.

The agency noted that SAVE can be used to access the records of some people but that it does not include birth certificates so cannot be used to verify details on some citizens and foreigners.