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illegal immigration

Florida sues DHS for refusing to verify voter registration citizenship information

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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody

From The Center Square

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After requesting citizenship status information about registered voters in Florida, and not receiving it from federal agencies as required by law, Florida sued.

In September, Florida requested information from the Department of Homeland Security and its subagencies about citizenship status of a subset of registered voters it identified and its request was denied.

One month later, a coalition of attorneys general, including Florida AG Ashley Moody, called on DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to provide the requested information, after multiple states, including Texas and Florida, also asked for similar information. They made the requests as multiple states also removed thousands of noncitizens from their voter rolls.

On Oct. 16, Moody sued Mayorkas and DHS in U.S. District Court Northern District of Florida Pensacola Division “for refusing to verify immigration records for the State of Florida to ensure voter-roll integrity.”

Under the Biden-Harris administration, millions of illegal border crossers “have flooded into the country,” Moody said. “Florida has an interest in ensuring that only American citizens are registered to vote. Recently, the state identified registered voters who may not be U.S. citizens, and DHS refuses to provide information necessary to determine their immigration status.” Moody sued “to ensure noncitizens are not on the voter rolls.”

“Voting is a right granted to American citizens – not illegal immigrants or other noncitizens,” she said.

The 16-page lawsuit cites federal and state law related to maintaining accurate voter registration records, federal government agencies’ legal requirement to ensure only citizens are voting in elections, among other provisions. “Because the federal government is refusing to comply with these obligations and frustrating Florida’s ability to maintain the integrity of its elections, Florida files this suit,” the lawsuit states.

Under DHS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) uses the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program to make immigration status information available to state agencies. The SAVE program was created to share information with federal, state and local agencies “for any legal purpose, such as credentials, background investigations, and voter registration,” the lawsuit says, citing information from the Federal Register.

Florida’s lawsuit follows more than a decade of litigation and interactions with DHS on the issue.

In 2012, Florida sued DHS requesting the court compel DHS to provide Florida with access to the SAVE program to verify voter immigration status. Florida was granted access and entered into a memorandum of agreement with DHS that allowed Florida to access SAVE program information.

“SAVE is a useful but inadequate tool that the State of Florida now uses to protect the integrity of its elections, with notable limitations,” Florida found, citing a range of problems with the program in the lawsuit. “SAVE cannot verify a benefit applicant’s status using a Social Security Number, driver’s license number, U.S. Passport number, foreign passport number, Consular Report of Birth Abroad or other non-DHS documentation,” it states.

Prior to suing DHS this time, Florida identified non-citizen registered voters but could not perform a search about them using the SAVE program because of its limitations. Last month, Florida requested USCIS to provide verification of citizenship status for the identified individuals, which it denied.

“Florida has identified a subset of individuals for whom it cannot verify citizenship or immigration status through SAVE and for whom DHS refuses to verify citizenship or immigration status through other means,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit requests the court to provide permanent injunctive relief, compel DHS to provide the requested information, and argues DHS and its subagencies are violating multiple federal laws, including the Administrative Procedure Act and the Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.

Other states like Texas requested similar information and didn’t receive it, The Center Square reported. Unlike Florida, Texas has yet to sue Mayorkas on this issue.

Daily Caller

‘Extraordinary’: El Salvador Agrees To Take In Any Gangbangers, Convicted Criminals Deported Out Of US

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Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and then-U.S. President Donald Trump, Sept. 25, 2019.

 

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Jason Hopkins

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has agreed to imprison convicted criminals from any country that have been ordered deported out of the United States.

The extraordinary offer was made after Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Bukele in San Salvador, the country’s capital city, to discuss a range of bilateral issues. The Central American leader not only agreed to take back his own country’s deportees, but also offered his “mega-prison” to house MS-13 members, Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gangbangers and any other criminal from around the world — including U.S. citizens. 

The offer could prove crucial for the Trump White House as it moves forward with its detention and deportation operation after the unprecedented border crisis that was sparked during the previous administration. The 8.5 million border encounters that occurred at the U.S.-Mexico border during President Joe Biden’s era resulted in an unprecedented growth of the country’s illegal migrant population.

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“We have offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system,” Bukele posted on social media Monday night. “We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee.”

“The fee would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable,” he continued.

The State Department confirmed the offer in a statement, adding that the “extraordinary gesture” has never been extended before by any other country.

“President Bukele agreed to take back all Salvadoran MS-13 gang members who are in the United States unlawfully,” said State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce. “He also promised to accept and incarcerate violent illegal immigrants, including members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, but also criminal illegal migrants from any country.”

The agreement follows an announcement in January by President Donald Trump that he would be utilizing a section of Guantanamo Bay to detain “the worst criminal illegal aliens.” The president said he would be sending up to 30,000 migrants with deportation orders to the Cuba-based naval base.

Previous administrations have utilized Guantanamo Bay for migrant detention in the past. The Clinton administration processed thousands of Haitians and housed Cuban asylum seekers at the naval base during the 1990s, and the Obama administration considered similar measures after the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the Biden administration also mulled the idea.

El Salvador, where the international crime syndicate MS-13 has a major presence, has long been plagued with violent crime. However, Bukele has made incredible strides in reducing his country’s crime rate since assuming office in 2019 through a no-nonsense policy of mass incarceration.

The Central American leader oversaw a 70% reduction of the country’s murder rate in 2023. When asked by the Daily Caller News Foundation in February 2024 how the U.S. could reduce crime rates in major cities, Bukele simply said “incarcerate the criminals.”

Sending deportees to El Salvador and Guantanamo Bay potentially solves two major hurdles for the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda: recalcitrant countries that refuse to accept their deported citizens back and limited Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention space. Racking up available bed space by the thousands can prevent ICE detention centers from being forced to release illegal migrants back into the community due to overcrowding.

Trump successfully coerced the Colombian president into taking back his county’s deportees after threatening him with stiff tariffs, and the Venezuelan government has also recently agreed to begin accepting their repatriated citizens.

Several high-profile criminal migrants were detained and released at the border before going on to commit heinous crimes in the U.S., such as Laken Riley’s killer Jose Ibarra and 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray’s alleged killers. More detention space can potentially help federal immigration authorities avoid releasing illegal migrants from custody.

Bukele “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio said to the media after meeting with him at his lakeside country house outside San Salvador.

The historic offer from El Salvador immediately followed Rubio’s trip to Panama, in which he successfully prevented the key Central American country from renewing an infrastructure agreement with China, reducing the communist country’s influence in the region.

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