PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Texas has referred dozens of noncitizens for prosecution, alleging they voted illegally in the 2024 presidential elections.
👥 Who’s Involved: Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 33 noncitizens.
📍 Where & When: Secretary of State Nelson announced the referrals on June 5.
💬 Key Quote: “Texas continues to monitor voter rolls. Whenever we find noncitizen voters we refer them for criminal investigation. To be clear, only legal citizens can vote.” — Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott.
⚠️ Impact: The referrals come thanks to President Donald J. Trump’s administration giving Texas access to a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) database, which former President Joe Biden refused.
IN FULL:
Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson has said that at least 33 noncitizens voted in last year’s presidential election, and they have been referred to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office. Should the noncitizens be found to have voted illegally, they could face serious penalties, including prison for voter fraud.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott commented on the issue on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Texas continues to monitor voter rolls. Whenever we find noncitizen voters we refer them for criminal investigation. To be clear, only legal citizens can vote.”
The move comes after Texas officials were granted the ability to look at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s (USCIS) Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Database. Secretary Nelson labelled access to SAVE, “a game-changer.”
States were granted access by President Donald J. Trump earlier this year through an executive order after former President Joe Biden had refused to let them access it last year. Governor Abbott has also worked to strengthen election integrity in Texas by signing a bill last month that will allow Texans to add citizenship requirements for voting to the Texas constitution.
Last year, Texas dropped over a million ineligible voters from its voter rolls, thousands of whom were illegal aliens, alongside hundreds of thousands of dead people.