Illegal immigrants may legally vote in U.S. elections, thanks to a loophole in federal law that provides an escape from any penalties and have their votes counted if they believe they are legally eligible to participate in an election.
Analysis by The Washington Times found that illegal immigrants are three times more likely to be Democrats than Republicans, and due to increasing numbers coming illegally across the border under the Biden administration, are expected to increase their votes for Democrats this fall.
The Times recently analyzed
On the Tucker Carlson Network Tuesday, Catherine Engelbrecht of True the Vote explained to Tucker Carlson that Title 18 of U.S. code states that noncitizens can vote if at the time they vote, they believe they are U.S. citizens. 18 U.S. Code 611(c)(3) states that the prohibition on noncitizens voting doesn’t apply if “the alien reasonably believed at the time of voting in violation of such subsection that he or she was a citizen of the United States.” Consequently, states merely require those seeking to register to vote to check a box indicating that they are a citizen.
Since voting is anonymous, and ballots are separated from the envelopes, Engelbrecht said there is no way to go back and trace those ballots. The progressive Brennan Center claims that noncitizens voting is rare, but doesn’t address the fact that finding evidence of noncitizens voting is difficult. The organization actively seeks to stop requiring proof of citizenship to vote. In 2021, the Brennan Center successfully represented the League of Women Voters in a lawsuit to stop three states — Alabama, Georgia, and Kansas — from requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote.
Engelbrecht said there are illegal immigrants coming over the border expressing their excitement at being able to vote for Joe Biden. She noted that “state of mind” has been accepted related to domicile as well; there are voters who list their addresses as vacant lots, fast food restaurants etc. “Residency is a state of mind … Is citizenship truly a state of mind?” she asked.
Tucker responded and said it was “insane to have foreigners choose our leaders.”
Engelbrecht said her group has been trying to get the message across that “inaccurate voter rolls lead to inaccurate elections.”
Compounding the problem, the Biden administration recently expanded mass parole for illegal immigrants. The program allows up to 30,000 illegal immigrants per month from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, who normally wouldn’t qualify for a visa, to use a U.S. government app on their cellphones to gain parole and either cross the border or fly into the United States.
Cleta Mitchell, chairwoman of the Election Integrity Network, told The Daily Signal, “That means they are eligible to work and eligible to get a Social Security number. It just massively increases the number of Social Security numbers for people who are not here legally,”
Social Security Administration spokesperson Nilsa Henriquez explained to The Daily Signal how illegal immigrants get Social Security numbers, which are not checked for citizenship status by voting administrators. She said those granted temporary legal status in the U.S. with work authorization from the Department of Homeland Security receive a Social Security card that says: “VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION.” She said if someone doesn’t have a driver’s license, only a Social Security number, the Help America Vote Act directs administrators to run the number past Social Security for verification that it’s a valid number only.
In February, the Republican National Committee (RNC) successfully defended most of the list maintenance provisions of Arizona’s HB 2243, which was passed into law in 2022 and meant to ensure non-citizens are identified and removed from voter rolls. However, the RNC and Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) recently discovered that counties have not been complying with implementing the law’s list maintenance requirements. The AZGOP submitted public records requests to all 15 Arizona counties. Only six responded. The counties said they were not in compliance because they don’t have access to some of the databases the statute requires them to check.
The AZGOP said in a press release issued on Friday, “It is inexcusable that the Secretary of State and the counties have not secured access to these databases, despite the law being in effect for nearly two years and never enjoined by a court. If counties do not show evidence of compliance with the law, the RNC and AZGOP will pursue every legal avenue to uphold election integrity in Arizona.”
That same court opinion struck down the parts of HB 2492 that required proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections.
A study from 2014 published at Old Dominion University found that enough noncitizens vote “to change important election outcomes, ”including “Electoral College votes and Senate races.” In the 2008 presidential race, almost 15 percent of noncitizens voted. Also that year, the number of noncitizens voting in Minnesota could have easily tipped the race in Democrat Al Franken’s favor, who was running for U.S. Senate and won by 312 votes. If merely just over .065 percent of the state’s noncitizens voted, that would equal the margin he won by. The study estimated that 10 times that number voted.
The controversy has drawn the attention of X owner Elon Musk, who posted a video that explained how Democrats are getting illegal immigrants to vote. Musk said on Wednesday, “Widespread voting by mail (not allowed before the scamdemic) makes proving fraud almost impossible.”
Several conservative members of the U.S. Senate introduced the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act this month, which would require states to obtain proof of U.S. citizenship before registering to vote. Several states have passed laws within the past few years to remove noncitizens from voter rolls.
Nate Silver, who previously ran the polling site FiveThirtyEight, authored an op-ed in The New Year Times several years ago on illegal voting which said that states that enact laws requiring proof of citizenship “decrease turnout by about 2 percent as a share of the registered voter population.” Silver, who is not a conservative, argued, “[A]lthough the effects seem to be small, and although their precise magnitude is uncertain, the position that they don’t have any effect at all is hard to defend.” He acknowledged that the “higher turnout is helpful to Democrats, on balance.”
– – –
Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
