Florida Citizenship Status Information Access Challenge

Lawsuit filed by the state of Florida and Florida Department of State against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, challenging the federal government’s refusal to provide citizenship status information. Florida verifies the citizenship status of registered voters on the state’s voter rolls using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program — an online service used by government agencies to check an individual’s immigration status. However, the state is not able to conduct a SAVE inquiry on individuals without a “unique immigration identifier,” which is assigned to noncitizens by the federal government. 

On Sept. 10, 2024, Florida sent a request to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asking the department to verify the citizenship status of a number of individuals on the state’s voter rolls who could not be verified through the SAVE program. The state claims that the department denied its request and confirmed “there is no other method of verifying the immigration or citizenship status of an individual available to state agencies apart from SAVE.” Florida argues the federal government’s refusal to provide additional citizenship status information violates federal law, and asks the court to compel the federal government to provide the state with the requested citizenship status information.

STATUS: On Nov. 28, 2025, the parties reached a settlement agreement. On June 30, 2026, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Iowa filed an emergency motion to enforce the settlement agreement. On July 7, 2026, the court granted the emergency motion to enforce the settlement agreement and ordered DHS to reinstate SAVE access to Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Iowa.

On July 8, 2026, the League of Women Voters filed a motion to intervene. On July 19, 2026, the court granted League of Women Voters’ motion to intervene in the case. On July 20, 2026, the League of Women Voters’ promptly appealed the court’s July 7 order enforcing the settlement agreement to the 11th Circuit.

On July 22, League of Women Voters filed a motion with the 11th Circuit to expedite the appeal. A decision on the motion is pending with the 11th Circuit.

Last updated: August 18, 2026 12:33 pm EST