District of Columbia Judge Sparkle Sooknanan ruled Monday that the Department of Homeland Security acted unlawfully by seeking to prevent illegal migrants from voting in the United States, writing in a decision that the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program “trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens.”
The department, together with the Social Security Administration, began allowing states to search Social Security numbers last year in order to confirm the citizenship status of registered voters. However, Sooknanan said the move violated federal laws prohibiting the disclosure of Social Security numbers, writing, “The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote. This court cannot stand idly by while that happens."
Expressing fear that errors might arise because some illegal migrants could fail to tell the authorities when they become legal, she added, “There is no obligation for an individual to report to SSA a change in their citizenship or immigration status until they request a replacement card or file a claim for a Social Security benefit.”
Evidently, that is not an uncommon occurrence. In an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs, Travis County, Texas, found that 25% of “non-citizen matches” were incorrectly flagged. The harm was arguably negligible, given that officials were required to contact those who were flagged to ask if they could provide proof of citizenship, but Sooknanan said that was too much for the country to ask of recent migrants, noting it meant they would “necessarily need to take ‘affirmative steps to avoid the risk of harm.’”
Judge Sparkle decrees that America belongs to any random alien on planet earth, just like our founders intended. https://t.co/X8guI1Xrt6
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) June 22, 2026
What was that old John F. Kennedy quote? “Ask not what you can do for your country, demand that your country do more for you”? Given that Judge Sparkle wasn’t born here, it would be understandable if a few words were transposed in her recollection. She was born in Trinidad and Tobago, where she spent the first 16 years of her life before migrating to the U.S. She became a federal judge for the District of Columbia in January 2025 and has been responsible for several decisions that have made headlines for undermining the administration over the last 18 months. Those included a December ruling to prevent illegal migrants from being housed at Guantanamo Bay, and an August decision aimed at preventing the Trump administration from helping several dozen children to reunite with their families in Guatemala.
It merits noting that Sooknanan remains more deeply rooted in Trinidad and Tobago than in the U.S. Her brother, Christian Sooknanan, served more than a decade in the country’s air guard, according to his LinkedIn profile, and she hasn’t disclosed whether she renounced her citizenship there, despite telling Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) during Senate hearings that she would do so if confirmed. Sooknanan is one of a handful of federal judges who hold dual citizenship between the U.S. and other countries. (Others who have publicly disclosed citizenships abroad include Third Circuit Judge Adeel Mangi, a Pakistani by birth who now holds dual citizenship between the U.S. and the United Kingdom, and Nicole Berner, who holds citizenship between the U.S., UK and Israel.)
If the judge still hasn’t renounced her citizenship, it seems like a welcome opportunity for Attorney General Todd Blanche to order an investigation into whether she made a false statement to Congress — a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, the law that Biden’s Justice department used to harass Trump supporters including Roger Stone. What better way could there be to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary?
Regardless, Congress should also take this as the motivation it needs to pass a law that (ideally) prohibits dual citizens from sitting on the federal judiciary — or, at a minimum, to disclose their status. Rep. Pete Stauber’s (R-Minn.) Judicial Loyalty Act would do both of these things, in addition to requiring that judges be natural-born citizens.
An American judiciary run by people who sound like they belong more in America than they do in the Star Wars cantina on Tatooine — it’s a novel idea, and the perfect way to commemorate the semiquincentennial celebration of the American dream.
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