The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to reveal that at least 278,000 noncitizens are registered to vote in federal elections, according to recent reporting. This comes as the administration faces ongoing legal challenges over its use of a federal citizenship database to purge voter rolls, with critics warning the system frequently misidentifies eligible U.S. citizens.
DHS Database Expansion and Voter Registration Claims
President Donald Trump is expected to announce the figure of 278,000 noncitizen registrants during a primetime address on Thursday, according to the New York Post. The data originates from a forthcoming report by the Department of Homeland Security. A source familiar with the matter told The Post that this is the highest number ever publicly reported in US history, though the source noted it remains unclear how many of those registrants may have voted illegally and what the administration plans to do about it.
The data originates from the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, a Department of Homeland Security tool maintained by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The system was originally designed to help states check the citizenship status of people applying for government benefits. Over the past year, the administration rushed through sweeping updates to the SAVE program with the stated aim of ridding elections of the “taint” of “illegal aliens . . . defraud[ing] Americans.” Previously, the program only allowed users to search, one by one, for people who had immigration records or some other involvement in formal DHS processes—such as individuals born overseas to American parents who applied for a certificate of citizenship—but it has since been repurposed to conduct bulk searches of state voter rolls.
While the administration presents the program as a safeguard for election integrity, large-scale data matching is prone to errors. When cross-referencing millions of records, even a small error rate can lead to significant discrepancies.
Legal Challenges and Privacy Concerns
The use of the SAVE system has triggered a wave of litigation. U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan issued a summary judgment finding that the administration’s expansion of the database violated several federal laws, including the Privacy Act of 1974. The ruling blocked the federal government from using the system to force states to purge voter rolls.
Despite this, the Department of Justice has requested a stay on the order, arguing that settlement agreements with several Republican-led states require the continued provision of the tool. A group of pro-voting and privacy organizations suing the DHS pushed back on this bid in a court filing Monday, slamming the Trump administration’s effort to pause the court ruling that blocked the retrofit of the database into a system to monitor state voter registration.
Advocacy groups, including the League of Women Voters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, have challenged this, accusing the administration of taking contradictory legal positions to maintain control over state election processes.
Documented Errors in Voter List Maintenance
The practical application of the SAVE tool has resulted in the flagging of numerous naturalized citizens. ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reported that in Boone County, Missouri, county clerk Brianna Lennon received an email in November stating a newly expanded federal system had flagged 74 people on the county’s voter roll as potential noncitizens. More than half of those individuals were later confirmed to be U.S. citizens.
Similar reports emerged in Texas, where reporting showed these errors were more widespread than previously known, involving at least 87 voters across 29 counties.
Legislative Stakes and Federal Funding
The administration is leveraging these findings to advocate for the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote and other election reforms. The bill has long lingered in Congress, where Republicans have repeatedly tried to jam the bill through the Senate, but have consistently failed due to a Democratic filibuster.
Tensions are further exacerbated by reports that the federal government may condition security grants on state compliance with new election procedures. The Department of Homeland Security may be gearing up to force states to feed their voter rolls through the modified database as a prerequisite to receiving grants intended to help them prevent terrorism and prepare for natural disasters.
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