Elections
Sixteen Attorneys General Demand DHS Verify Citizenship of Registered Voters
A coalition of 16 state attorneys general, led by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, has formally called on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to provide states with crucial voter registration information, especially concerning the citizenship status of registered voters. The group raised concerns about DHS’s lack of coordination with states to verify voter registration details, a responsibility they argue is critical ahead of national elections.
The letter from the coalition, sent on October 15, and reported on by the Center Square, emphasized the need for federal-state cooperation to ensure that only American citizens participate in elections. “Americans may differ about the best result in the upcoming election, but we trust that all Americans of goodwill should agree that the right to vote in American elections belongs to American citizens alone,” the letter states. “Federal law endows citizens with the exclusive right to say who governs them and obligates your office to coordinate with the States to protect the franchise by verifying the immigration status of any registered voter upon request.”
The appeal comes as several states, including Texas, have recently removed noncitizens from voter rolls. Texas authorities removed 6,500 noncitizens and are conducting an ongoing investigation into other potentially ineligible voters. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently contacted U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), seeking compliance with a request from the Texas Secretary of State (SOS) to verify the citizenship status of registered voters. Paxton also identified over 454,000 registered voters in Texas whose citizenship had never been verified.
The coalition’s letter focused on the obligation of DHS to collaborate with states in verifying voter registration information. They noted that recent responses from DHS have been delayed and inadequate, citing the agency’s refusal to grant access to the Person Centric Query Service database, which DHS deemed “not appropriate to verify voter registrants.” The attorneys general argue that the law mandates DHS to provide the necessary information to states to ensure election integrity.
“While it is a crime for noncitizens to register to vote, federal law has been construed by the courts to restrict states from requiring proof of citizenship as a prerequisite for registration,” stated AG Paxton. “Therefore, the federal government must comply with the law and provide the requested information in a timely manner to ensure the integrity of American elections.”
The signatories of the letter include attorneys general from Ohio, South Carolina, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
In November, president-elect Donald Trump announced on social media that he would impose a 25% tariff on all products from Canada and Mexico if they do not take an active role in containing illegal immigration as well as the level of illicit drugs entering into the United States.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, after which the Canadian government vowed to secure the border. “We got, I think, a mutual understanding of what they’re concerned about in terms of border security,” Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc, who accompanied Trudeau at Mar-a-Largo, said of the meeting in an interview with Canadian media. “All of their concerns are shared by Canadians and by the government of Canada.”
“We talked about the security posture currently at the border that we believe to be effective, and we also discussed additional measures and visible measures that we’re going to put in place over the coming weeks,” LeBlanc continued. “And we also established, Rosemary, a personal series of rapport that I think will continue to allow us to make that case.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation reports the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is preparing to beef up its immigration enforcement capabilities by hiring more staff, adding more vehicles and creating more processing facilities, in the chance that there is an immigration surge sparked by Trump’s presidential election victory. The moves are a change in direction from Trudeau’s public declaration in January 2017 that Canada was a “welcoming” country and that “diversity is our strength” just days after Trump was sworn into office the first time.
The Daily Caller notes the differences in response from the Canadian government verses Mexico’s:
Trudeau’s recent overtures largely differ from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has indicated she is not willing to bend the knee to Trump’s tariff threats. The Mexican leader in November said “there will be a response in kind” to any tariff levied on Mexican goods going into the U.S., and she appeared to deny the president-elect’s claims that she agreed to do more to beef up border security in a recent phone call.
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