check voters’ immigration status

The Trump administration is breaking the law with its intra-agency efforts to cull protected personal information from millions of Americans to support its immigration and political motives, according to a lawsuit that privacy and voter advocates filed Tuesday in federal court. 

The plaintiffs are seeking a class action designation to add more parties to their case.

Filed in the District of Columbia, the complaint alleges the Department of Homeland Security has created an illegal national citizenship database through its Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system. At least four states are using SAVE data to review voter rolls, even though it relies on Social Security data the agency considers unreliable, the lawsuit alleges.

The first state to plug into the SAVE system was Louisiana, where Secretary of State Nancy Landry announced Sept. 4 that she used the new database to scour state voting records going back to the 1980s. Her review found 390 noncitizen registered voters, including 79 who she said voted in at least one election over the past several decades. 

The 390 voters in question represent 0.01% of all registered voters in Louisiana, though Landry acknowledged the possibility that some of her findings could be in error or attributed to outdated information.

“The consolidation and unlawful use of Louisianans’ sensitive data without our knowledge is alarming and terrifying,” M. Christian Green, president of the League of Women Voters of Louisiana, said in a statement. 

Green’s chapter, its counterpart in Virginia and the national League of Women Voters are plaintiffs in the lawsuit with the Electronic Privacy Information Center and five individuals identified as J. Doe.

J. Doe 4 is a Louisiana voter who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2014, according to the lawsuit. The court filing also claims that Social Security records incorrectly state that J. Doe 4 is not a U.S. citizen.

Defendants in the case are the Department of Homeland Security and its leader, Kristi Noem, the Social Security Administration and its commissioner, Frank Bisignano, the U.S. Department of Justice and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Trump administration officials have yet to publicly comment on the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs say the Trump administration has violated multiple federal laws by combining various government sources to form a national “Data Lake” under U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a subagency of Homeland Security. In addition, the lawsuit claims the separation of powers provision in the Constitution was violated when the executive branch chose to usurp Congress’ authority over elections. 

The alleged violations include the Privacy Act, approved in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal and amended in 1988 through the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act. The advocacy groups say the Trump administration has ignored prohibitions against disclosing, combining and comparing data from different federal agencies beyond allowed exceptions.

“Unfortunately, the Defendants in this case are ignoring these laws to create comprehensive databases of American citizens’ data …” the lawsuit reads. “The Plaintiffs in this case include a proposed class of millions of American citizens and permanent residents whose records have been unlawfully pooled into new or revised centralized records systems.”

Louisiana election investigation finds 79 noncitizens have voted since 1980s

The alleged violations began with the formation of the Department of Governmental Efficiency through an executive order from President Donald Trump, according to the lawsuit. DOGE initiated a “government-wide consolidation of sensitive personal data” that culminated with the approval of the SAVE system. Subsequent executive orders from Trump prompted states to begin sharing their voter data with federal agencies, the plaintiffs argue.

Without evidence to support his claims, Trump has repeatedly alleged widespread fraud took place in the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections. The states that have willingly joined the president’s SAVE campaign are Republican led, while Democratic state leaders are fighting the Justice Department’s attempts to compel them to share voter data.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday calls for the federal court to stop the Trump administration from compiling information illegally and for the new database to be dissolved.