26 states participate in federal SAVE program to ensure only US citizens are voting

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

In less than a few months, 26 states have begun working with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to ensure only U.S. citizens are voting in federal elections now that states have access to an upgraded database with critical immigration information.

The USCIS has been making upgrades to its Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database and working with states to verify citizenship status for a range of programs, including voter registration.

Trump administration improvements and expanded access to the SAVE database have enabled state agencies to submit more than 46 million voter verification queries ahead of Tuesday’s election, USCIS says.

“USCIS remains dedicated to eliminating barriers to securing the nation’s electoral process,” USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser said. “By allowing states to efficiently verify voter eligibility, we are reinforcing the principle that America’s elections are reserved exclusively for American citizens. We encourage all federal, state, and local agencies to use the SAVE program.”

“Currently, only 26 states already have, or are in the process of establishing, a memorandum of agreement for voter verification with SAVE,” USCIS says. “Government officials at all levels in all states should be committed to eliminating voter fraud and restoring faith in America’s elections.”

States can now access the SAVE database to verify the citizenship of those on state voter rolls using the last four digits of the registered voter’s Social Security number instead of requiring all nine numbers. Registered state agencies are also able to access the data without needing a Department of Homeland Security identifier, which was previously required.

Expanded access and upgrades to the system is a marked reversal from Biden administration policies that prevented state access to information, prompting 16 Republican attorneys general, including Texas, to sue. The AGs raised “grave concerns that by failing to work with States to verify voter registration information, [DHS] has failed to discharge its duty ahead of a national election,” The Center Square reported.

Similarly, a coalition of Republican attorneys general have repeatedly called on the U.S. Senate to pass the SAVE Act, a bill that would ensure additional safeguards are in place to prevent noncitizens from voting in federal elections. The bill passed the House but has failed to pass the Senate.

Florida was the first to sue DHS more than a decade ago identifying problems with the SAVE database, including an inability to verify Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and many other types of documentation, The Center Square reported.

Last year, Texas’ secretary of state removed an initial batch of 6,500 noncitizens from Texas’ voter rolls. She also requested information from the Biden administration’s DHS/USCIS, including a list of 454,289 registered voters in Texas “who have never had their citizenship verified.” The Texas SOS didn’t receive the requested information and also sued, The Center Square reported.

Six months later, under a new administration, the SAVE database was made available to all states. In March, President Donald Trump issued an election integrity executive order directing DHS to provide states with free access to the SAVE database.

Last month, the Texas SOS identified nearly 3,000 noncitizens on Texas’ voters roles after accessing SAVE database information, The Center Square reported. Other states have also been announcing similar findings.

The SAVE database isn’t just used for voter registration verification but also for federal, state and local government agencies to verify immigration status for those seeking benefits, licenses, background investigations and other applications. MOAs enable state and local agencies to submit information about an individual to cross check against the SAVE database, which includes data maintained by the departments of Homeland Security and Justice and the Social Security Administration.

Trump administration changes to the system have enabled federal agencies to submit more than 110 million queries to help verify eligibility for federally funded benefits. These initiatives, combined with SAVE’s status verifications for new benefit requests, have collectively resulted in more than 205 million status verifications queries as of October 2025, up from 25 million queries submitted last year, a 12-fold increase.