USCIS Records Request Challenge

A pro-voting lawsuit seeking records about the Trump administration’s use of immigration databases to review voter rolls ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Background 

Democracy Forward Foundation filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) after the agency failed to comply with multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking records about the Trump administration’s efforts to use the SAVE system for voter registration and voter list maintenance purposes ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The requested records concern USCIS’s implementation of President Donald Trump’s March executive order, which directed federal agencies to help verify U.S. citizenship for federal elections by compiling and sharing citizenship data with states. The plaintiff argues that USCIS violated FOIA by failing to promptly respond to the records requests and by improperly denying expedited processing despite the significant public interest. The plaintiff asks the court to order USCIS to process the requests on an expedited basis and produce the requested records.

Why It Matters

There is widespread evidence that SAVE misidentifies U.S. citizens as noncitizens, creating a risk that eligible voters could be improperly removed from the voter rolls and underscoring the need for transparency into USCIS’s expanding role in election administration ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. 

Latest Updates

• Aug. 4, 2026: Plaintiff filed its complaint.