Texas Demands Citizenship Data From Federal Government on 454,000 Voters

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during a meeting in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 23, 2024. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Texas officials are asking the federal government for citizenship information on voters after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he obtained a list of approximately 454,000 individuals who are registered to vote in the state but haven’t had their citizenship verified.

Paxton told Ur Jaddou, director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, in an Oct. 7 letter that he is seeking the citizenship and immigration status for the voters on the list he obtained because, he says, there is no way to confirm the citizenship status without the federal government’s assistance.

In Texas, citizenship status is automatically verified when people register to vote using a driver’s license or state-issued ID, as noncitizens cannot vote but can legally hold a license or ID. Paxton said that those on the list allegedly did not use such identification, and that information could not be obtained by the Texas Department of Public Safety, leaving their status unverified.

“Although I have no doubt the vast majority of the voters on the list are citizens who are eligible to vote, I am equally certain that Texans have no way of knowing whether or not any of the voters on the list are noncitizens who are ineligible to vote,” Paxton wrote.

He pointed to a recent audit by the Texas Secretary of State that found more than 1,300 noncitizens were registered to vote in four counties the office randomly selected to investigate.

“The people on the attached list did not use a driver’s license or ID to register to vote and that information could not be obtained from the Department of Public Safety, so their citizenship status has never been verified,” he said.

Federal law says that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services must respond to inquiries from federal, state, and local government agencies that seek a person’s citizenship or immigration status.

“I am confident that you will continue to comply with your legal obligations and provide the requested citizenship or immigration status to my office so that I may ensure Texas elections are fair and secure,” Paxton said.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not return a request for comment.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in August that Texas removed more than one million people from its voter rolls since 2021, including more than 6,500 noncitizens. Of that group, nearly 2,000 had voted, he said.

Paxton’s office planned to investigate the apparent illegal votes for potential legal action, Abbott’s office said at the time.

Some Republicans at the state and federal level have been focusing on the issue of noncitizen voting.

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, for instance, announced over the summer that thousands of people were flagged for removal from the voter rolls because the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had issued them noncitizen identification numbers. The U.S. Department of Justice later sued the state, alleging that it is not permitted to remove people from the voter rolls within 90 days of an upcoming election.

The attorney general has given U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services until Oct. 17 to comply with his request.