The False Fear of Noncitizen Voting

—Douglas Rissing—Getty Images There is no epidemic of noncitizens voting in our elections.

Federal law already bars it, and despite repeated allegations by a number of prominent conservative figures, hunts for violators have turned up next to nothing .

Yet President Donald Trump continues to aggressively push for passage of his SAVE Act , a bill that would require every American to show a passport or birth certificate in person just to register to vote, effectively ending online and mail-in registration.

Framed as a fraud-prevention measure, I expect the bill would ultimately do far more to keep eligible citizens off voter rolls than to stop alleged noncitizen voting.

And then there’s what Trump expects: he has said that the SAVE Act would “guarantee the midterms” for Republicans, who, he’s promised, “will not lose an election for 100 years.” But the SAVE Act should scare voters across the political spectrum .

Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy.

They are the primary mechanism by which we select our leaders and hold them accountable.

When any politician—whose access to power depends on election outcomes—repeatedly casts doubt on election integrity without evidence, we must see it as an attempt to undermine our democracy and push back hard.

This is why I see the passage of the SAVE Act as the equivalent of a four-alarm fire for our democracy.

Not only could the bill make it impossible for millions of Americans to exercise their right to vote, but it would also hand the federal government unprecedented new powers over election administration and voter data, powers that have always belonged to the states .

Such is the potential for mass disenfranchisement and abuses of power that even members of Trump’s own party have decried the bill as “ a mistake .” And yet the SAVE Act is only one front of the attack on our democracy.

There are other examples of disturbing ways that the Trump Administration is fearmongering about immigrants , effectively sowing mistrust in our electoral systems.

Since May 2025 , the Department of Justice has demanded that nearly all states and the District of Columbia turn over full, unredacted voter rolls, including driver’s license and partial Social Security numbers.

When most of those states refused, DOJ filed lawsuits against 30 of them and D.C.