Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson referred 33 potential noncitizens who voted in the 2024 election to the Texas Attorney General’s Office for investigation last week, according to a press release from Nelson’s office. If the investigation confirms the individuals are not U.S. citizens, they would face criminal voter fraud charges.
Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott voiced his support for the move, stating in an X post, “Texas continues to monitor voter rolls. Whenever we find noncitizen voters we refer them for criminal investigation. To be clear, only legal citizens can vote.”
The referral came a few weeks after Texas gained access to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s (USCIS) Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Database. SAVE provides immigration status and citizenship information to federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal agencies, according to the database website.
“Gaining access to this database has been a game-changer,” Secretary Nelson said in a press release.
President Donald Trump made the SAVE database freely available to states via a March executive order directed at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). After getting database access, Texas became one of the first states to join a pilot program working with DHS, USCIS and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to improve its functionality.
Texas requested access to the SAVE database last year but was denied by former President Joe Biden, prompting a 16 state lawsuit against his administration.
Texas removed 6,500 noncitizens from voting rolls in the lead up to the 2024 election, but was unable to verify the citizenship of almost a half million voters because of the Biden administration’s noncompliance. (RELATED: Democratic Judge In Texas Indicted For Allegedly Running Voter Fraud Scheme)
Governor Abbott signed a bill in May which will allow Texas voters to add citizenship requirements for voting to the state’s constitution this November. Similar legislative efforts aimed at requiring proof of citizenship to participate in elections have been put forward at the federal level.
