Judge blocks Trump's use of revamped immigration database for voter checks

By Luc Cohen

June 22 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from using a revamped version of an immigration database for checking the accuracy of state voter rolls, dealing a blow to U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to boost the role of the federal government in elections ahead of the midterm elections in November. 

Last year, the Department of Homeland Security revamped a system it uses to verify individuals’ citizenship and immigration status to make it easier for state and local officials to use it to make sure voters were U.S. citizens. 

In a 75-page decision on Monday, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C., sided with voting rights and privacy advocates who argued that the overhaul of the system, known as SAVE, made it less accurate and risked disenfranchising eligible voters. 

“The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” wrote Sooknanan, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.” 

In a statement, DHS General Counsel James Percival said, “It’s amazing how hard the Left will fight to stop us from solving problems they insist do not exist. Judge Sparkle Soknanan’s (sic) latest ruling preventing DHS from addressing alien voting is just the latest example!” 

TRUMP SEEKS TO BOOST FEDERAL ROLE IN ELECTIONS

Trump’s Republicans are locked in a fierce battle to maintain control of both houses of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections.  

In the U.S., federal elections are administered by individual states. Trump and his allies have long asserted that states are not doing enough to prevent voter fraud, even though audits and academic studies have found that it is rare. Trump argues, falsely, that his loss in the 2020 presidential election was due to fraud. 

His administration’s efforts to boost the federal government’s control over elections have largely been stymied by the courts.

Three federal judges in separate cases have blocked Trump’s 2025 executive order requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and restricting the counting of mail ballots.

A March 2026 executive order restricting mail-in voting has also drawn legal challenges. Federal judges have also rejected nine of the lawsuits the administration has brought against 30 states and the District of Columbia for refusing to hand over their complete voter rolls.

Critics say Republicans are driven less by concerns over election security than by an effort to gain political advantage by narrowing the electorate, risking the disenfranchisement of eligible, often Democratic-leaning voters.

DATABASE REVAMP RAISES PRIVACY CONCERNS

Last year’s SAVE revamp allowed users to search many records at a time and gave them access to individuals’ Social Security numbers. 

Since then, several Republican-led states have compared their voter lists to the database and cancelled the registrations of registered voters flagged as noncitizens.

The advocacy groups who brought the lawsuit, including the League of Women Voters, said that has resulted in people who were wrongfully identified as noncitizens being kicked off voter rolls. 

Voting-rights advocates argue that SAVE can be outdated, meaning immigrants who have been naturalized and are thus eligible to vote are sometimes labeled as noncitizens.

Sooknanan ruled that the revamp also violated privacy laws restricting the federal government’s disclosure of Social Security numbers and other information. 

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Matthew Lewis)

By Luc Cohen | Reuters | © Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026.