Texas AG Opens Investigation into Reports of Organizations Possibly Registering Illegal Immigrants to Vote

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is opening an investigation into reports of organizations possibly registering illegal immigrants to vote in the state.

The investigation is detailed in a press release that came out on Wednesday, explaining that investigators from the Texas Attorney General’s Election Integrity Unit “recently conducted undercover operations to identify potential voter registration of noncitizens in Texas” and found that some nonprofit organizations “have been located outside Texas Department of Public Safety [DPS] Driver License offices, operating booths offering to assist in voter registration for persons doing business at the driver’s license offices.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

This is odd, as U.S. citizens can register to vote while getting a new license or ID or simply renewing their existing one. In other words, there is no need for these organizations to stand outside of these offices offering, presumably, the same services a U.S. citizen can easily get inside the official building with the state — unless, of course, they are attempting to attract another target audience, noncitizens. Because of this, the state wants to know what, exactly, the nonprofits are doing there and what their true motives are for supposedly offering the same services offered to every U.S. citizen.

“Texans are deeply troubled by the possibility that organizations purporting to assist with voter registration are illegally registering noncitizens to vote in our elections,” Paxton said in a statement.

“If eligible citizens can legally register to vote when conducting their business at a DPS office, why would they need a second opportunity to register with a booth outside?” he asked, explaining that his office is investigating this matter and looking into “every credible report we receive regarding potential criminal activity that could compromise the integrity of our elections.”

Paxton added that the Biden-Harris administration brought millions of illegal immigrants into the country, saying, “[W]ithout proper safeguards, foreign nationals can illegally influence elections at the local, state, and national level.”

Paxton also reminded everyone that registering to vote as a noncitizen is a crime.

“Any wrongdoing will be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” he warned.

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This issue is not just possibly affecting Americans in Texas. This prompted Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) to push the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which provides safeguards to stop noncitizens from voting in U.S. elections. Roy said there currently are no safeguards to prevent this despite it already being technically illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

“There’s a whole, you know, industry built up around propping up people here to be here illegally,” Roy told Breitbart News Daily in July. “So, of course, they’re voting.”

“And then, importantly, our own federal government [is] registering these people automatically — through Medicaid, through forced DMV registration — under federal law. And, of course, they’re registering them, and then they’re saying, ‘Oh, but they won’t vote in federal elections. Don’t worry about it,’” he said.

“That’s the absurdity. You can’t even make it up. Federal law has been interpreted to prohibit states from checking to see if you’re a citizen even though, technically, the law says you must be a citizen,” he continued.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

He added, as Breitbart News detailed:

“We want to keep it simple, so we drafted it to follow existing state laws, primarily. So what would change? First of all, nothing would immediately change for people who are already registered. You’d be allowed to go vote. What we would require is for the next registrants — so someone [who] goes to register to vote tomorrow, like, if this bill passed — then they would be forced to show up with passport, a Real ID that’s already checking citizenship, or, if the system doesn’t have that, a driver’s license, a photo ID, plus a copy of your birth certificate or your naturalization papers,” he said, explaining that there would be other paths that could be taken if the individual could not get their birth certificate.

Further, the law would essentially put the rest of the burden on the state, requiring states to clean their voter rolls and ensure that there is a process for making sure that only citizens are registered to vote.

“That’s what we do. We try to make it minimally burdensome but strong enough to ensure that only citizens vote,” he explained, noting that the law would allow each state to determine how it would be best to go through voter rolls. Virginia, he said, made such an effort in 2023, checking against federal databases. It found that 1,500 noncitizens were registered to vote. Texas, he continued, also did something similar a few years ago and found 25,000 noncitizens in the system.

Notably, the House passed that bill in a 221-198 vote that same month, but only five Democrats joined Republicans.