American Oversight Urges DHS to Halt Unlawful Expansion of SAVE System Citing Data Privacy, Eligible Voter Purge Concerns
Transforming SAVE into a sweeping repository of Americans’ personal information threatens data security and could wrongfully remove lawfully registered voters from the rolls.
Monday, American Oversight submitted a public comment opposing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) proposal to dramatically expand the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program. We warned that transforming SAVE into a sweeping repository of Americans’ highly sensitive personal information poses serious risks to data security and threatens to wrongfully remove lawfully registered voters from the rolls.
“When an administration consistently signals that it believes too many people are participating in our elections, we have to pay close attention to what it builds in the name of ‘integrity,’” said Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight. “So when DHS creates a massive database of personal information and moves to share it across agencies, it’s not just a technical issue — it’s a human one. Millions could have their private details exposed, their eligibility wrongly questioned, or their right to vote challenged. This plan heightens the risk of data breaches, identity theft, and inaccurate voter purges, putting people’s privacy and their voice in our democracy at risk.”
The proposed overhaul comes amid DHS’s ongoing effort to consolidate sensitive personal data into SAVE, historically a limited tool used only to verify specific immigration-related information for benefits eligibility. As we noted in our comment, DHS’s new plan would unlawfully repurpose Americans’ personal data, potentially violate the Privacy Act, and expand a flawed system that can easily misidentify naturalized citizens as noncitizens. States have begun using SAVE to conduct bulk voter list checks, despite these well-documented potential errors — a shift that could result in eligible voters being swept up in inaccurate purges.
In partnership with Campaign Legal Center, we recently sued DHS, USCIS, and the Social Security Administration for records about the expanded SAVE system’s development and implementation. Additionally, last month, we released records showing DHS sought nationwide access to driver’s license and passport information as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping push to use the SAVE system for “voter roll maintenance” efforts targeting virtually nonexistent noncitizen voting.