DALLAS — Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson is looking to the federal government to help the state check the immigration status of registered voters who have not validated their citizenship.
Nelson sent a letter to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services requesting the information Wednesday.
It’s unclear how many names might be in question, the Secretary of State’s office said.
“The office is in the process of compiling a list of individuals on Texas’s voter roles whose citizenship cannot be verified using existing state sources,” the letter said.
At least 10 other states already verify citizenship through USCIS, but Nelson’s office said this marks the first time Texas has requested the information.
It is a second-degree felony for a non-citizen to cast a vote in Texas. It's also illegal to knowingly lie about citizenship status while registering to vote in Texas. A 1996 federal law made it illegal for a non-citizen to vote in federal elections.
In August the Secretary of State published a news release touting the steps the state follows to ensure non-citizens are not on the voter rolls.
The office said it's constantly updating voter rolls based on communication with the Texas Department of Public Safety about non-citizens and with Texas courts about people dismissed from jury duty because of their citizenship.
A 2021 Texas law also allows the Secretary of State to withhold funds from counties that don’t clear noncitizens from their voter rolls.
Nelson’s letter was sent hours after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton publicly urged her to request the information. Paxton’s office sent her a draft of a letter. The letter Nelson actually sent to USCIS was similar to that draft, but not identical.
This push for citizenship information follows years of heightened concern about election integrity.
The conservative Heritage Foundation compiled a database that tracks voter fraud cases. It contains four cases where non-citizens were prosecuted for voting in Texas between 2012 and 2018.
For perspective, in the two presidential elections during that time frame, more than 16.8 million votes were cast in Texas.
The clock is even ticking toward a government shutdown because a federal funding bill, which must be passed by October 1, is being tied to a Republican-backed bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Democrats say the measure is not needed because that’s already the law.
Nelson’s letter requests citizenship information be provided by USCIS before October 2.
The deadline to register to vote in Texas is October 7.