Alexandria, VA – The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem commending recent improvements to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program while urging the department to expand and promote its use in statewide voter roll maintenance efforts.
PILF’s letter cites DHS’s April 2025 reforms as a major breakthrough writing, “The April 2025 SAVE overhauls are taking an in-demand system that few state election offices could practically use to a tool that should soon be as commonly relied upon as the Social Security Death Index.”
The letter outlines patterns that PILF has observed across the country. The foundation has previously encountered non-citizens registered at the prompting of DMV clerks or canvassers, language barriers that lead to many non-citizens not fully understanding they were registering to vote, and confusion surrounding voter eligibility because non-citizens received a voter registration card.
“SAVE is a critical tool to help immigrants,” the letter states, “especially those who are unaware when DMV clerks send their data to the local voter roll.”
The letter reminds Sec. Noem of the bipartisan origins of SAVE in election work, noting how North Carolina’s efforts were precleared under the Obama Justice Department and guided by then-USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. It also highlights a 2024 case in South Dakota where SAVE helped reverse the impact of a DMV error that wrongly registered non-citizens.
“Everyone should be concerned about non-citizens registering to vote,” said J. Christian Adams, President of PILF. “Voting is solely a right for American citizens and every effort should be made to preserve it.”
PILF urges DHS to treat SAVE’s improvement as a “permanent campaign,” not a one-time project, and calls for a more user-friendly interface and greater promotion among state election offices.
A full copy of the letter to Sec. Noem can be found here.
Contact:
Douglas Blair
Director of Communications
Public Interest Legal Foundation
503-956-9899