1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Today I take pen in hand to write and urge you to oppose the Department of Homeland Security's recent expansion of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, and the changes that threaten to disenfranchise eligible American voters based on flawed and incomplete data. The SAVE program, as you know, was originally designed to verify citizenship for government benefits applications, not for voter verification. Recent changes implemented in May have dramatically expanded its scope. Working originally with DOGE, DHS now allows state and local election officials to search for hundreds of thousands of voters simultaneously using only social security numbers, names, and dates of birth. This represents a dangerous departure from the program's original purpose and capabilities. The reason I oppose this change is that the data underlying SAVE is fundamentally unreliable for voter verification. A 2018 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report found that SAVE is not a comprehensive list of U.S. citizens, and isn’t updated to include all naturalized citizens, and doesn’t include all derivative citizens born to U.S. parents outside the country. The Social Security Administration's Numident database, which SAVE now accesses, lacks comprehensive citizenship information for Americans born before 1978. Naturalized citizens may not have updated citizenship information if they didn't notify the agency of their naturalization. These flaws in the data create serious risks. As on example, in 2024, several state election officials falsely claimed they had identified large numbers of potential noncitizens on voter rolls, sweeping up thousands of eligible American citizens in the process. Twenty-one million American citizens do not have easy access to common citizenship documents like passports or birth certificates, making it difficult for wrongly flagged voters to prove their eligibility. The rules expansion also raises significant privacy concerns and may violate the Privacy Act and Administrative Procedure Act. The administration has provided no new system of records notice as required by law. Oversight has been further compromised by shutting down the USCIS ombudsman and the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties casting aside approximately 600 civil rights investigations. Voter fraud, including noncitizen voting, is extremely rare. Congress authorized SAVE to help states ensure eligibility for public benefits applications, NOT to block American citizens from voting. I urge you to demand that DHS reverse these changes and restore proper safeguards against voter disenfranchisement. Thank you.