The Biden administration has taken a firm stance against a proposed bill aimed at enhancing the existing law that permits only American citizens to partake in federal elections. In an official statement issued on Monday, the White House expressed its strong opposition to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. The White House criticized the GOP-led bill, stating that it relies on claims that can be easily proven false, and asserted that current laws are sufficient to prevent noncitizens from voting in federal elections.
“This bill would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but it would make it much harder for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged from voter rolls,” the White House stated. “The evidence is clear that the current laws to prevent noncitizen voting are working as intended — it is extraordinarily rare for noncitizens to break the law by voting in Federal elections.”
The White House urged Republican legislators to back the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. Meanwhile, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, spearheaded by Texas GOP Representative Chip Roy and supported by numerous other House Republicans, aims to mandate states to verify citizenship in person during voter registration and to eliminate non-citizens from current voter lists, as stated in a press release.
“I’m honored to be in the crosshairs of the White House — This administration is clearly not interested in safeguarding American citizen’s right to vote,” Roy said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This is about political power.”
Nineteen individuals who are not citizens from a range of different countries were charged and found guilty in North Carolina for unlawfully participating in multiple state elections, as per documented instances gathered by Heritage Foundation fellow Hans von Spakovsky and recently brought to the attention of the House Administration Committee. In a separate instance, approximately 10,000 to 20,000 non-citizens were enrolled to vote by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation over a period of two decades, as reported by von Spakovsky.