Ohio Citizenship Status Information Access Challenge

Lawsuit filed by the state of Ohio and its secretary of state, Frank LaRose (R), 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. Ohio verifies the citizenship status of registered voters using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, an online service used by government agencies to check an individual’s immigration status. The plaintiffs claim that they are unable to conduct a SAVE inquiry on individuals without a “unique immigration identifier,” which are assigned to noncitizens by the federal government and not readily accessible to state governments. From July to September 2024, LaRose submitted several requests to the DHS for access to the federal government’s Person Centric Query Service (PCQS), a database that allows searches without a unique immigration identifier. On Oct. 10, the DHS responded to LaRose. The agency argued that the SAVE program was the best database for verifying citizenship status and PCQS results would be less reliable.

The plaintiffs argue that DHS’s failure to respond violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), a federal law that requires federal agencies to provide timely responses to requests from state governments. They also argue that DHS’s decision to provide information on citizenship status only through the SAVE Program violates a federal law that entitles state governments to receive citizenship status information and a provision of the APA that requires all agency programs to comply with federal law. The plaintiffs ask the court to order DHS to grant the  state access to PCQS and any other federal databases it needs to verify the citizenship status of Ohio voters.

STATUS: The plaintiffs filed their complaint On Oct. 24, 2024. The defendants have not responded yet.

Last updated: October 25, 2024 10:20 am EST