Attorney General Ken Paxton has urged Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson to formally request citizenship data from the Biden administration in a recent letter.
Paxton’s letter, dated September 18, urges Nelson to ask the Biden administration for assistance in identifying potentially ineligible voters.
“No issue is more important than election integrity. As Secretary of State, you stand on the front lines of the battle to protect the sanctity of the ballot box. … As you know, the federal government continues to be the most significant challenge we face in securing Texas elections,” Paxton wrote. “Texas has acutely felt the pain of nearly four years of the Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous open-border policies, which have led to a flood of illegal immigration both in Texas and nationwide.”
“At the same time, federal law has made it nearly impossible for states to verify the citizenship of voter-registration applicants. 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,” he continued.
“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 do its job in helping states maintain the integrity of their voter rolls,” he added.
Paxton attached a draft for Nelson to use when asking the federal government for assistance in verifying voters whose citizenship could not be confirmed.
The draft letter is addressed to Ur Jaddou, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). In the suggested letter, Paxton writes, “The Office of the Texas Secretary of State (the Office) requires the assistance of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as the State of Texas continues to fulfill its obligations to ensure compliance with federal and state election laws prohibiting non-U.S. citizens from voting.”
The letter references an attached list of suspect names, noting in one place that there are approximately 1 million names on the list, and asks the USCIS to “please verify or ascertain the citizenship or immigration status of each person on the list no later than September 25, 2024. The Office requires this information to comply with federal law by removing ineligible voters from the voter rolls and to ensure that only U.S. citizens vote. USCIS is required by federal law to provide this assistance.” The letter goes on to reiterate the obligation of the USCIS to assist with the task of verifying citizenship, citing relevant statutes.
“The Secretary of State and county voter registrars have an ongoing legal requirement to review the voter rolls, remove ineligible voters, and refer any potential illegal voting to the Attorney General’s Office and local authorities for investigation and prosecution. Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated,” Paxton added.
Paxton’s request follows a broader national conversation about voter eligibility and election security, particularly as the 2024 elections draw near. Earlier this month, Gov. Greg Abbott highlighted the issue of election integrity when his office announced that Texas had purged a million ineligible voters from its rolls since 2021, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Relatedly, the Oregon DMV recently admitted to wrongfully registering at least 306 non-citizens to vote in U.S. elections.