Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate and Attorney General Brenna Bird sued the Biden administration Tuesday because federal officials declined to provide the state with a list of noncitizens registered to vote shortly before the 2024 election.
According to the complaint, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services informed Iowa election officials on Oct. 29 that it would not give them a list of about 250 confirmed noncitizens who were allegedly registered to vote in violation of state and federal law.
Pate and Bird argue federal law requires the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes USCIS, to respond to inquiries from Iowa officials about registered voters’ citizenship status and provide information that is required “to secure the integrity of Iowa elections.” They are asking a federal court to order USCIS to provide the list of noncitizens registered to vote, and to give Iowa access to other sources of information that could be used to check the citizenship of voters.
The Biden-Harris Administration knows who the hundreds of noncitizens are on our voter rolls and has repeatedly refused to tell us who they are.Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird
“The Biden-Harris Administration knows who the hundreds of noncitizens are on our voter rolls and has repeatedly refused to tell us who they are,” Bird said in a statement. “But the law is clear: voters must be American citizens. Together, with the secretary of state, we will fight to maintain safe and secure elections that Iowans can count on.”
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said DHS does not comment on pending litigation.
Without the USCIS list, Pate used a flawed list of more than 2,000 Iowa registered voters who at some point in time had identified themselves as noncitizens to the Iowa Department of Transportation.
Shortly before Election Day, when early voting had already started, Pate directed county auditors to challenge the ballots of most of those voters, requiring them to provide proof of citizenship to have their votes counted. He acknowledged most of the people on the list had likely become U.S. citizens before registering to vote.
Pate said the information the state is requesting would help his office verify voter eligibility when people register rather than when they vote. While speaking with reporters the day before he announced the lawsuit, Pate said he was hoping for more cooperation from the federal government.
“It frustrated me watching this last election, when I knew the list was right here in [the USCIS field office in] downtown Des Moines, that they could have just handed over,” he said. “And we could have been able to know exactly how many noncitizens were registered in Iowa, and dealt with those in a very specific and targeted way, rather than have to do the awkward approach we had to this time.”
Four naturalized citizens and the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa, represented by the ACLU, sued the state shortly before Election Day in an effort to stop Pate’s directive. A federal judge allowed Pate to move forward with requiring the ballot challenges.
We could have been able to know exactly how many noncitizens were registered in Iowa, and dealt with those in a very specific and targeted way, rather than have to do the awkward approach we had to this time.Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate
The ACLU and the ACLU of Iowa called Pate’s lawsuit Tuesday “a waste of time and money.” They said in a statement that Pate is suing instead of agreeing to follow the federal government’s rules for using its citizenship data.
“All of this is especially concerning because the secretary has a history of misusing data in a way that denies Iowans’ voting rights,” they said. “Just this past election, in Iowa, hundreds and perhaps thousands of naturalized citizens were improperly targeted and challenged at the polls, including many who were not allowed to vote a regular ballot, because the secretary improperly used stale [DOT] data to call their citizenship into question — although he partially backed down after we took him to court.”
The ACLU said studies, journalists and government officials “have found very few noncitizens who have voted, out of the many millions of people who vote.” There are more than 2 million registered voters in Iowa, and Pate has said about 250 are likely noncitizens.
Pate’s lawsuit says that about two weeks after the election, USCIS reached out about giving Iowa access to the SAVE system to check immigration status. Pate and Bird said the SAVE program does not include all of the information they need, but they will continue working with the federal government to access SAVE.
A DHS spokesperson said SAVE is "the most secure and efficient way to verify an individual's citizenship or immigration status."
"USCIS has engaged with Iowa and will continue to correspond with them directly through official channels," the spokesperson said in an email. "USCIS administers an online information service called SAVE that allows registered and authorized agencies, including election authorities in states, to verify certain individuals' citizenship or immigration status."
DHS requires election authorities that use SAVE to provide written notice to voters that their citizenship may be verified against federal immigration records.
This post was updated Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 5:53 p.m. to add a statement from DHS.
