Florida Moves to Protect Elections From Illegal Alien Votes

The state of Florida and multiple other states have a new agreement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that will help prevent illegal aliens from voting fraudulently in elections.

Florida sued the Biden administration back in October of last year in an effort to ensure better information from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Systematic Alien Verification of Entitlements (SAVE) database. But until now, DHS did not provide what Florida and the other states requested.

Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd issued a press release Dec. 3 about the agreement. “Florida successfully led this multistate effort to help secure accurate voter rolls,” he said. “Election integrity starts with clean voter rolls, and this important agreement will improve and modernize the SAVE database for decades to come.”

Among the new updates is that SAVE will be accessible to the states at no cost, and DHS will process bulk requests and respond within 48 hours. DHS will also improve search functionality by equipping SAVE to search both full and partial Social Security numbers.

Byrd’s press release provided the following background:

SAVE is an online service administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to verify immigration status and U.S. citizenship of applicants seeking benefits or licenses. USCIS is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
The agreement was formally approved by the court this week.

The states were wise to obtain a 20-year judicial enforcement window, hopefully ensuring that they will still be able to access such services and data even if a Democrat administration takes over federally. The states that helped Florida obtain a settlement in the case were Indiana, Ohio, and Iowa.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis created the Office of Election Crimes and Security (OECS) in 2022 to investigate, punish, and prevent the election fraud that has been so rife thanks to Democrats in recent years.

One such example that occurred not in Florida but in Kansas during this year’s election was particularly shocking. A “non-citizen” mayor won reelection but found himself facing election fraud charges after he illegally voted for himself. And in October, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson declared that a recent statewide election review exposed 2,724 illegal aliens on the state’s voter rolls.

As for the new Florida deal with DHS, Gov. DeSantis celebrated it on X Thursday. “Election integrity win!” he posted. “This agreement provides states access to federal immigration data (which Biden refused to give) so we can further ensure that Florida’s constitution is upheld by only allowing US citizens to vote.” The governor included a link to Byrd’s press release.

By law, only citizens are allowed to vote in United States elections, and that is exactly the way it should be. More states should follow the example of Florida, Ohio, Iowa, and Indiana in working to ensure illegal aliens cannot rig our elections.

Editor’s Note: Support and follow PJ Media’s coverage of key breaking news and immigration reform. Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.