In a move that underscores President Trump’s focus on restoring election integrity, the administration on Thursday rolled out a major enhancement to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, aimed squarely at stopping noncitizens from registering and voting in U.S. elections.
The updated system—administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in coordination with the Social Security Administration—now allows state and local election officials to verify citizenship using Social Security numbers, bypassing previous limitations tied to Department of Homeland Security identifiers that many agencies did not collect. The upgrade also enables batch verification, offering a streamlined process for removing ineligible voters from the rolls, writes The Daily Caller.
“For years, states have pleaded for tools to help identify and stop aliens from hijacking our elections,” USCIS Spokesman Matthew Tragesser said in a statement provided to the DCNF.
“Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Noem, USCIS is moving quickly to eliminate voter fraud,” Tragesser continued. “We expect further improvements soon and remain committed to restoring trust in American elections.”
SAVE, an online service administered by USCIS, allows various government agencies to verify the immigration status or U.S. naturalization of applicants seeking benefits or licenses.
The new partnership allows government agencies to create cases in SAVE using an applicant’s Social Security number rather than a Department of Homeland Security identifying number, which is not collected by a majority of state and local agencies, according to a separate news release. Additionally, agencies for the first time will be able to submit more than one case at a time, streamlining the process.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett—whose office helped pilot the new system—called it a “game-changer” and praised the administration’s commitment to partnering with states on voter list accuracy.
The SAVE overhaul dovetails with a broader suite of election security initiatives championed by President Trump. In March, he signed Executive Order 14248, which directs federal agencies to safeguard voting systems from fraud and foreign interference. And in April, the House passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, requiring proof of citizenship for all federal voter registrations and mandating state-level purges of noncitizen registrants—legislation the White House strongly supports.
Public polling continues to show overwhelming support for commonsense election protections like photo ID and proof of citizenship. Still, legacy media and Democratic critics have dismissed concerns about noncitizen voting as exaggerated. But federal law enforcement tells a different story: prosecutors recently charged two Ukrainian nationals and one Iraqi national for illegally voting in U.S. elections. Meanwhile, states including Texas, Virginia, Alabama, and Ohio have removed thousands of noncitizens from the voter rolls in the lead-up to 2024.
