Immigrant rights group seeks to block use of federal databases it says could purge legal voters

An immigrant rights group filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Wednesday, seeking to prevent the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from using federal databases to potentially purge legal voters. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, representing the lawsuit, claims that the DHS and Justice Department are interfering with fair elections by relying on inaccurate federal databases in an alleged attempt to bolster claims of voter fraud.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, is spearheaded by the UCLA Voting Rights Project, on behalf of the coalition. Speaking at a press conference in downtown Los Angeles, Angelica Salas, the coalition's executive director, accused the administration of voter intimidation. She emphasized that the federal government's actions are meant to "intimidate naturalized U.S. citizens."

The lawsuit argues that the administration may be comparing voter rolls with undisclosed government databases, which could include outdated information and errors. This process, the lawsuit states, could generate inaccurate results that disproportionately impact naturalized voters. The coalition asserts that comparing government databases to identify noncitizen registrants is erroneous and violates voter privacy laws, as Congress has never authorized such activities.

The Trump administration has been targeting noncitizen voting, claiming it could be a source of significant fraud during the midterm elections. Despite the rarity of noncitizen voting, the administration is pushing for the U.S. Postal Service to send mail ballots only to verified U.S. citizens. Additionally, the Justice Department has sued to obtain detailed voter data in 30 states and the District of Columbia, though it has not succeeded in those cases.

The DHS defended its actions, stating that it accessed publicly available data from states' voter rolls and cross-referenced them with known illegal aliens within its systems. The department emphasized that the process is straightforward and aimed at securing elections. However, the lawsuit does not specify whether the administration used the recently revamped Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program to generate projections about noncitizens in the states or relied on other unknown datasets.