Heritage Action receives SAVE Act as key vote

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La., left) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) conclude a press conference at the Capitol on May 8 on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images)

Amid the border crisis, Heritage Action for America sees the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, a law that would require voters to show proof of citizenship, as a key vote in the House of Representatives.

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this week on the SAVE Act, sponsored by Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas.

Since President Joe Biden took office on January 20, 2021, more than 10 million illegal immigrants and millions more paroled aliens have entered the country.

Roy’s bill is sponsored by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and former President Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee.

Heritage Action is the grassroots organization of the Heritage Foundation, the leading conservative think tank.

“Democrats in Congress and the media are quick to scoff at the fact that illegal immigrants are already legally prohibited from voting,” said Ryan Walker, executive director of Heritage Action, in an official statement. “But they are also vocally opposed to states actually checking voters’ ID or citizenship status. It is odd that lawmakers simultaneously reject common-sense proposals for election integrity and support the current administration’s program of mass immigration of illegal immigrants. The connection is not lost on the American people.”

Heritage Action endorsed the SAVE Act in May, but has now elevated it to a “key vote,” meaning it will affect a legislator’s rating on the Heritage Action Scorecard.

Democratic leaders in the House oppose the bill, saying it would impose “an extreme burden on countless Americans” to vote, House Minority Leader Katherine Clark, a Democrat, told caucus members in a memo. Clark added that there is “no evidence whatsoever of the widespread voter fraud this bill is supposed to combat.”

Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah is the sponsor of a Senate version of the bill, which has 120 co-sponsors in both chambers.

Although it is already illegal for illegal immigrants to vote in federal elections, election officials have no way to prevent them from registering to vote, Johnson said.

“Without the SAVE Act, states will continue to issue IDs to non-citizens, automatically register voters without proof of citizenship, and hold elections without any ID requirements,” said Heritage Action’s Walker. “This loophole in voting rights should be closed before Americans go to the polls in November. Heritage Action thanks Representative Roy and Senator Lee for their leadership in this fight and urges all legislators to vote for the SAVE Act.”

The bill would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, better known as the Motor Voter Law, to require states to require a person to provide documentary proof of citizenship before registering to vote. It would also require states to purge noncitizens from existing voter rolls.

The bill would also give citizens the right to file civil lawsuits against election officials who fail to provide required proof of citizenship for federal elections. The bill would integrate existing Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration databases to enable a new requirement for states to remove aliens from voter rolls.

In several states, illegal immigrants are entitled to a driver’s license and other benefits, giving them ample opportunity to illegally register to vote in federal elections.

Roy argues that federal law generally preempts and undermines state laws that require proof of citizenship for voter registration in such elections.

In 2017, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortes resigned after the state admitted to registering illegal immigrants as voters for several years.

Heritage Action found that more than 70 percent of Americans oppose the proposal to grant noncitizens the right to vote, while more than 80 percent support requiring proof of identity at the ballot box.