DHS Said to Brief Cleta Mitchell’s Group on Citizenship Checks for Voting

By Matt Cohen

Cleta Mitchell, chairman of the Election Integrity Network, speaks during a news conference at the House steps of the U.S. Capitol to introduce the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act,” which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

A senior official in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) held a briefing for a far-right anti-voting group on Thursday, according to an email sent by the group. The virtual meeting was to discuss how a database run by the department can be used to verify the citizenship status of registered voters.

The email, sent Thursday to members of the Election Integrity Network (EIN) — a voter-suppression advocacy group founded by the prominent anti-voting lawyer Cleta Mitchell — advertised David Jennings, DHS’s associate chief of U.S. citizenship and immigration services, as the special guest for a Zoom meeting later that morning.

“When Trump issued Executive Order 14248 earlier this year, he included much needed directives to the Department of Homeland Security to ensure (finally!) that state and local election officials have full and free access to the system used by DHS to verify citizenship status of individuals already on voter rolls,” the invite to EIN members read. “But what does that look like? How does it work in real time? And who has access?”

The email said that Jennings would review the abilities of DHS’ Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program — a federal database to help state and local governments confirm the citizenship status of individuals — to “aid in assuring that noncitizens are removed from our voter rolls.”

A spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency within DHS where Jennings works, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mitchell played a pivotal role in President Donald Trump’s thwarted efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election. Since then, Mitchel and EIN have been one of the leading groups in the anti-voting movement, working behind the scenes to push voter suppression laws in states across the country and to mobilize conservative activists to monitor voting and guard the polls.

Among the numerous provisions outlined in Trump’s sweeping anti-voting order is a charge for DHS and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to use federal databases to review state voter registration lists. 

For years, USCIS has maintained the SAVE database for states to use to check citizenship for voting verification purposes. But GOP state lawmakers complained it was too hard for them to access sensitive citizenship information. 

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen (R) sent a letter in February, along with 20 other Republican secretaries of state, to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem urging her to make it easier for states to access sensitive citizenship data in the department’s SAVE program.

Voting-rights advocates have said loosening rules on accessing the database could lead to unlawful voter purges.  

DHS updated its SAVE program last month to make it easier for states to access citizenship data. And the U.S. Department of Justice recently confirmed to Democracy Docket that it’s working with both DOGE and DHS to investigate state voter rolls to hunt for noncitizen voter fraud.