Democrats Block Every Effort To Keep Noncitizens From Voting

The Biden-Harris administration has been anything but cooperative in helping state election officials track noncitizens on voter rolls. Perhaps that has something to do with the real Big Lie that the federal “honor system” stops foreign nationals from registering to vote and casting ballots. 

As of this weekend, Iowa’s senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst seemed to be getting nowhere with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The Republicans are demanding the agency immediately respond to Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate’s request for assistance to track the citizenship status of nearly 2,200 registered Iowa voters “who self-identified as non-citizens.”

“Anything short of the information Secretary Pate requested is unacceptable. Iowa has worked in good faith to secure its electoral process and safeguard Americans’ cherished right to vote. Unfortunately, USCIS’ stonewalling has led to more questions than answers,” Grassley and Ernst wrote in a joint statement issued Saturday. 

‘Time Is of the Essence’

While USCIS’s Des Moines Field Office has completed its review, the federal agency’s headquarters is refusing to turn the information over to state officials, according to the lawmakers and Pate.   

On Thursday, Pate sent Grassley a letter alerting the senator about his “urgent pleas” to USCIS to release the critical data.

“Time is of the essence, as voting in Iowa has been underway since October 16 and Iowa election law requires absentee ballots be separated from their carrier envelopes on Monday, November 4,” the senators wrote in a joint letter to Immigration Services. “We expect a response to this letter and for the information to be released to Iowa’s Secretary of State by end of day Friday, November 1. If that doesn’t happen, you will be playing into the very serious concerns of Iowans that the Biden-Harris administration is not following federal law and not taking reasonable measures to ensure only citizens are voting in our federal elections.”

The response never came. 

Pate noted in his request for urgent federal intervention that his office reviewed voter registration data, comparing an Iowa Department of Transportation file of foreign nationals to the I-Voters registration system. The review found 2,176 registrants who self-reported as noncitizens, ineligible to vote under state and federal law but registered to vote, nonetheless. 

The secretary’s office also discovered 154 registrants “who had self-reported to the DOT as non-citizens after registering to vote or voting.” 

“There is reasonable suspicion that any voter on either list is a non-citizen,” Pate wrote in his Halloween letter to Grassley. 

‘The Work Has Been Done’

While the Des Moines Field Office of USCIS reviewed the suspect names with the assistance of the state DOT supplying Alien Registration Numbers, headquarters in Washington, D.C., will not allow the Iowa office to share the information. 

“This information would be critical to Iowa’s election officials in this process and ensure naturalized citizens can cast their ballots as normal,” Pate wrote. 

The Biden-Harris Department of Justice has threatened to challenge Iowa’s process of vetting the voting rolls. Pate wrote that he asked the DOJ to allow their Immigration Services colleagues in D.C. to turn over the data that’s been completed in Des Moines. 

“The work has been done. The most current, verified information is available. Yet, Washington, D.C. will not share it with us. We have heard it before — ‘see something, say something.’ The federal government has said it themselves but have not followed through,” Pate wrote to Grassley, expressing his frustration with the federal bureaucrats. “If the federal government has information that will ensure only U.S. citizens vote AND ensure naturalized citizens can cast their ballot as normal, that information must be shared.” 

Pate said the D.C. office has only responded by saying that Iowa’s request is “being sent to an executive level within the Department.” The request, according to the USCIS, will “require extensive research and review by multiple oversight offices,” Pate notes in the letter.

It appears the Biden-Harris administration is engaging in classic executive branch stonewalling. Perhaps that’s not surprising from an administration led by a president who has threatened to veto a bill that would require documented proof of citizenship to register to vote, an administration powered by a weaponized Department of Justice that harasses states for removing foreign nationals from their voter rolls. 

A USCIS official did not return The Federalist’s request for comment. 

As of Saturday evening, the USCIS has refused to release the requested data, according to Grassley’s office. 

“We reiterate our demand for USCIS to immediately release the requested information, to ensure all eligible citizens can participate in our elections. With Election Day right around the corner, there’s no time for federal officials to waste,” the senators said in the statement blasting the agency. 

‘It’s Hardly a Coincidence’

The Biden-Harris administration’s recalcitrance in assisting election officials who seek to verify voter citizenship extends beyond the Hawkeye State’s borders. 

In Ohio, Secretary of State Frank LaRose recently filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security grant his agency access to U.S. citizenship records, information LaRose says DHS has unlawfully withheld. 

Filed in federal court for the U.S. Southern District of Ohio, the complaint alleges the Biden-Harris administration has on multiple occasions refused to provide the Buckeye State access to citizenship verification records. As The Federalist reported last month, the agency has repeatedly refused to answer LaRose’s requests. 

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, has attempted to intervene on the secretary of state’s behalf, without success. In a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Jordan charged the agency with engaging in “a clear effort to intimidate and interfere with Ohio’s electoral process.” 

“LaRose has tried to ensure that eligible voters — and not ineligible noncitizens — participate in Ohio’s elections,” the congressman wrote. “We expect your full cooperation with our oversight of your attempt to prevent states from ensuring that noncitizens do not influence our democracy.”

He got more stonewalling. So LaRose sued. 

“While the administration is blocking access to these records, the Department of Justice is suing or threatening to sue multiple states, including Ohio, who are trying to enforce their citizenship voting requirements,” the secretary of state said in a press release. “It’s hardly a coincidence. The same administration that’s presided over the most reckless, porous immigration policy in our country’s history is also intentionally blocking states from protecting the integrity of their elections.”

LaRose’s office has found hundreds of foreign nationals on the state’s voter rolls, directing that those individuals be removed from the registration list.  In August, LaRose referred 138 noncitizens discovered on the voter rolls to state Attorney General Dave Yost’s office for prosecution. The secretary of state said it appears the individuals have voted in past elections. Late last month, Yost announced that his office was indicting six individuals on charges of illegally voting as noncitizens in Ohio elections over the past several years. The Republican AG said many of the 138 cases referred by LaRose involved “improper voter registration,” but Yost said he has no authority to prosecute in those cases. 

Nothing to see here, Democrats insist. 

On a related note, a federal judge last week rejected the leftist ACLU’s push to stop LaRose’s efforts to require that voters whose citizenship status is challenged provide naturalization papers. 

LaRose called the ruling a “big legal win for election integrity.”

“You can’t make this up — the [ACLU of Ohio] sued me to try to force us to accept NON CITIZEN IDs without proof of citizenship,” LaRose wrote on X. “We fought and WE WON! American elections are only for American Citizens and in Ohio we make sure of it.”

The ACLU is pulling the same stunt in Iowa, representing four voters and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in suing Pate for challenging the votes of apparent noncitizens. The secretary of state asks that the individuals provide proof of citizenship. They have seven days to do so. 

An ACLU official told the Associated Press that Pate is disenfranchising voters by asking them to provide proof of citizenship. Federal law currently requires only that individuals registering to vote attest that they are U.S. citizens. 

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said LULAC is attempting a last-minute effort to “let noncitizens illegally vote.”

“I am fighting to defend our long-standing election integrity laws and ensure Iowans can maintain trust in our elections,” she said in a statement. 

For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.