Republicans use spending clash to highlight immigration issue

House Republicans are using this month’s government funding showdown to spotlight an immigration issue that can fuel their criticisms of Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic lawmakers ahead of the November elections.

In a draft measure released Friday to keep the government funded after Sept. 30, the House included the text of another bill, dubbed the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and require states to remove noncitizens from their official lists of eligible voters.

The Biden administration and Democrats oppose that noncitizen voting bill and are expected to try to block the measure from becoming law, in part because it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

But the bill dovetails into broader election arguments from Republican lawmakers and Trump that their party will be stronger on immigration and border security, as well as claims made without evidence that Harris and Democrats are seeking to get votes from immigrants without legal status.

“Americans overwhelmingly agree that noncitizens shouldn’t vote,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, posted on social media Friday in support of the House push to attach it to the spending bill.

“Although existing law nominally prohibits them from voting in federal elections, noncitizens can easily register to vote — just by checking a box on a form while applying for a driver’s license,” Lee wrote.

Elon Musk is among voices who have echoed claims that Democrats are seeking to bring in migrants with the plan of having them vote, while other Republicans have taken legal action to have noncitizens removed from voter rolls.

A House vote in July on the SAVE Act showed that the issue could cause some swing-district Democrats to peel away from their party. Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Donald Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas and Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez of Washington joined Republicans to pass the measure on a 221-198 vote.

And, earlier, seven Democrats joined Republicans in voting for a resolution that chastised Harris on the Biden administration’s immigration record.

Campaign and courts

The issue is already hot on the campaign trail and in the election fight. America First Legal, which is led by former Trump immigration adviser Stephen Miller, announced on Wednesday his legal firm filed an amended lawsuit broadening existing litigation to target 15 counties in Arizona — including Maricopa, the state’s largest county — for failing to remove noncitizens from its voter rolls.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Bexar County over its plan to mail out hundreds of thousands of resident voter registration forms, citing the lack of authority to send unsolicited forms and the estimated 6,500 noncitizens removed from state voter rolls since 2021.

Trump said he “absolutely” would support the idea of attaching the SAVE Act to must-pass spending legislation, when asked if that were the case by Monica Crowley of Fox News during her podcast on Aug. 29, although Trump said he wouldn’t stop there.

Under questioning about Congress’ approach to the continuing resolution, Trump said Republicans should pursue a broader strategy that includes paper ballots as well as another Republican border security bill that takes a hard-line approach to immigration.

“The SAVE Act is just one element,” Trump said. “They ought to go into a whole thing where you want to have borders, they ought to focus on borders. You know, the House bill that was passed, that’s the real bill that should be passed. But they get on the original one, and not this horrible one that was foisted upon us by some people that had a bad day, but they ought to focus on borders and elections.”

Asked if he would support a government shutdown if the SAVE Act weren’t part of the continuing resolution, Trump said he’d “shut down the government in a heartbeat,” criticizing Democrats for overspending.

The Biden administration has also come out against the voting measure, which helps Republicans connect the issue to Harris if it does not get signed into law.

“This bill would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but it would make it much harder for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged from voter rolls,” a statement of administrative policy said. “The evidence is clear that the current laws to prevent noncitizen voting are working as intended — it is extraordinarily rare for noncitizens to break the law by voting in Federal elections.”

Instead, the Biden administration said Republicans who want to do something about illegal immigration and border security should vote on the border deal that Biden negotiated with a bipartisan group of senators.

Harris has pointed to that same deal as immigration measures she would seek to sign into law if elected. The issue could come up during the debate with Trump on Sept. 10, which would coincide with legislative activity on the continuing resolution in Congress.

Lawmaker debate

House Republicans are framing the SAVE Act as essential to election integrity and needed to prevent states from allowing noncitizens to vote at a time when the Biden administration has been blamed for mass illegal immigration into the country.

Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., said during floor debate in July the evidence noncitizens are on the voting rolls presents a danger to the electorate at a time when the outcome of the 2024 election is expected to be close.

“Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a legal American citizen,” Steil said. “Illegal voting risks swaying elections. Ensuring our laws are being enforced to prevent noncitizen voting is critical. Some will say that illegal voting is already illegal for noncitizens, but it is also illegal to evade the Border Patrol and enter our country illegally. Yet, that hasn’t stopped almost anyone.”

Steil pointed to statistics that Illinois removed almost 600 noncitizens from its voter rolls and a Georgia audit that recently determined more than 1,600 noncitizens had attempted to register. In Pennsylvania, a state that may well determine the outcome of the 2024 election, Steil said almost 10,000 noncitizens were removed from their rolls.

In August, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced he had signed an executive order that streamlined the voter rolls in his state, an effort he said included the removal of more than 6,300 noncitizens from registration.

According to a report by NBC News, local election officials in Virginia said the presence of noncitizens on the voter rolls could be the result of “errors made when people fill out paper or online forms or when they respond to a question about citizenship on a touchpad device at the department of motor vehicles.”

Rep. Joseph D. Morelle, D-N.Y., said during the floor debate in July the requirements for additional documentation to register to vote under the SAVE Act would block certain Republican constituencies as well as Democrats exercising the right to vote.

“Let’s be very clear: What is a voter supposed to do if they don’t have a passport?” Morelle said. “What if their Real ID, like almost every American, does not show citizenship status? The SAVE Act will not allow them to register, especially millions upon millions of American women, students, servicemembers, Native voters and many more.”

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