Texas requests federal data to check citizenship status of some registered voters

AUSTIN — The Texas secretary of state on Wednesday asked the federal government to provide citizenship data to help state officials verify whether registered voters are eligible to vote.

Secretary of State Jane Nelson said her office is compiling a list of registered voters whose citizenship can’t be verified using state sources. Nelson asked US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ur Jaddou to provide data to share with county registrars by Oct. 2 “to prevent non-US citizen voting.”

It is against federal and state law for noncitizens to vote in elections. The state’s voter registration deadline is Oct 7.

“Texas is leading the way in instituting measures to ensure the integrity of our elections, including by removing non-US citizens from the State’s voter rolls and preventing non-US citizen voting — all of which are undertaken in compliance with the requirements of federal and state law,” Nelson wrote in a letter to the federal agency.

“In furtherance of these obligations, federal law entitles state and local officials to receive citizenship status information from USCIS,” she said. “Specifically, federal law says state governments may not be prevented from requesting citizenship information from USCIS.”

Nelson’s correspondence came hours after Attorney General Ken Paxton announced her office to use its “legal authority” to request the information from the federal government.

Paxton, who panned the federal government as “the most significant challenge we face in securing Texas elections,” said the Biden-Harris administration’s “open-border policies” have led to an influx of illegal immigration as federal law makes it “nearly impossible” for states to verify voter-registration applicants’ citizenship.

“Although it is a crime for a non-citizen to register to vote, federal law restricts states from requiring proof of citizenship, and state agencies like those we lead have limited means to verify voter citizenship in many cases,” Paxton wrote in a letter this is Nelson. “But those same laws place obligations on the federal government to help us identify potential noncitizen voters. And the Office of the Secretary of State possesses the legal authority to demand the federal government to do its job in helping states maintain the integrity of their voter rolls.”

Paxton’s request was accompanied by a draft letter for Nelson to send to USCIS. Nelson’s letter largely mirrored Paxton’s draft but toned down the attorney general’s language about his rising concern over noncitizen voting.

Paxton also said about 1 million people “did not use a driver’s license or ID to register to vote, so their citizenship status has never been checked.” Nelson’s letter to the federal agency did not indicate how many records her office wanted to check.

Texas last month announced it had removed more than 1 million people from its voter rolls, many of whom had died, since a 2021 election integrity and security bill was signed into law, including roughly 6,500 “potential” noncitizens.

Spokespeople for the federal agency did not immediately respond to two emails seeking information about Texas’ request.

Staff writer Philip Jankowski contributed to this report.