Trump’s Campaign to Restrict Voting by Non-Citizens and the Resulting Political Push

President Donald Trump and his allies have intensified claims that non-citizens are voting in U.S. elections. A report cited by the president’s Truth Social post alleged that 24,000 non-citizens voted illegally in the 2020 election, based on a commercial voter file matched to federal records. Law professor Justin Levitt said the methodology could generate false positives, noting that name-address mismatches or outdated citizenship data can create errors. The administration’s narrative has been used to argue that the integrity of upcoming midterm elections is at risk.

Associated Press

Secretaries of state in California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania publicly questioned the Department of Homeland Security’s July letter that claimed up to 250,000 non-citizens were registered in those states. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said her office had not shared voter-registration data with DHS and expressed “serious doubts” about the data’s reliability. New Jersey officials reported that about 6,600 non-citizens were improperly registered through a motor-vehicle system in 2023-2024, with fewer than 400 voting. Pennsylvania’s Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt noted DHS had low confidence that the 14,576 individuals cited were non-citizens, and he is awaiting a methodology explanation. Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said he does not understand the federal methodology but affirmed his state’s efforts to keep voter rolls clean.

Associated Press

Republican senators are being urged by Trump to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, which would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote. The bill passed the GOP-controlled House but remains stalled in the Senate, where some Republican members have expressed skepticism about its provisions. Critics argue that millions of eligible voters lack easy access to citizenship documents; a 2025 University of Maryland study estimated 21.3 million U.S. adults face such barriers.

Associated Press

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis described the census report’s findings as evidence that non-citizen voting is extremely rare yet a growing concern. Assistant U.S. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold characterized the president’s actions as an attempt to undermine confidence in the 2026 election.

Associated Press

• “Trump is trying to lay the groundwork to reject the ’26 election,” — Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold.

Associated Press