Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric and Election Denialism

Studies have found that voting by noncitizens in federal elections — something prohibited by law — is “vanishingly rare.” Despite that fact, anti-democracy activists have recognized the political utility of harnessing anti-immigrant sentiment to advance the lie that our elections are not secure. Evoking the specter of votes being illegally cast by noncitizens who are inflating the voter rolls, election deniers have advanced false and xenophobic claims that have become a new conservative talking point. 

Former President Donald Trump and his supporters have repeatedly invoked racist fears to advance the false claim that noncitizens are coming to the United States en masse to illegally vote. The Republican National Committee’s “election integrity” division has also alleged that illegal votes by immigrants could invalidate the election results, and sent letters to eight secretaries of state, claiming without evidence that their states allowed noncitizens to vote in federal elections. Weeks before Election Day 2024, at least eight lawsuits have been filed by Trump allies that allege inaccurate voter rolls could permit noncitizens to illegally vote. In Ohio, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and the America First Policy Institute sued the Biden administration, alleging officials are encouraging noncitizens to vote. In December, officials in Iowa also sued the administration for information about the citizenship status of more than 2,000 registered voters.

Conservative groups with close ties to the election denial movement have also diligently promoted this lie. The Election Integrity Network, United Sovereign Americans, the Only Citizens Vote Coalition, Americans for Citizens Voting, America First Legal, America First Policy Institute, True the Vote, the Heritage Foundation, and others have been at the forefront. For example, America First Legal, which was founded by former Trump administration officials, sued all 15 counties in Arizona in September 2024, claiming they had not properly removed non-citizens from voter rolls. The group had sent letters in July on behalf of Arizona Free Enterprise Club urging each county to clean its rolls to ensure that only American citizens were registered to vote.

Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have pushed for a bill banning non-citizens from voting, with Johnson even threatening to shut down the government if the bill was not passed. An Arizona law — recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court — requires people registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship. A 2023 North Carolina law created a new procedure for removing noncitizens from state voter rolls. The Georgia State Board of Elections approved sending all counties a sign that states “U.S. CITIZENS ONLY,” urging officials to display them at polling locations. In November, eight states  — Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin — will have constitutional amendments on their ballots intended to limit voting to American citizens. 

If adopted, these measures could make it harder for legally registered people to vote, as many people do not have easy access to the documents required to prove citizenship. And even if they fail, the anti-immigrant rhetoric can chill voter turnout, particularly in communities of color and among naturalized citizens. Voter roll purges designed to remove noncitizens from voter rolls also risk improperly canceling valid registrations, including for recently naturalized citizens who are eligible to vote. 

At the same time, some states have touted efforts (including those already required by law) to remove noncitizens from voter rolls. Election experts warn that publicizing such routine maintenance only bolsters fears about what amounts to a nearly nonexistent problem. For example, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order in August 2024 that included measures requiring the state Department of Motor Vehicles to create daily lists of non-citizen transactions to share with the state Department of Elections. Youngkin’s office also announced that the state had removed 6,000 non-citizens from its rolls. While the office did not indicate if any of those people had actually attempted to vote, conservatives seized on it to spread more unfounded claims of widespread illegal voting.

In August, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a press release that touted the state’s voter roll maintenance and said that more than 6,500 “noncitizens” had been removed from lists, claiming that nearly 2,000 of those removed had a voting history. Along with other watchdog and voting rights groups, American Oversight sent a letter to the Texas secretary of state flagging that some of those names might have been mistakenly removed. That same month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an “election integrity” investigation into organizations he claimed were “illegally registering non-citizens to vote,” based on a tweet from a Fox News host regarding immigrants voting that lacked any supporting evidence. Along with the Texas Civil Rights Project, ACLU Texas, and League of Women Voters of Texas, American Oversight sent a letter to Texas officials regarding the probe. 

The rhetoric associated with these actions boosts claims that elections are rife with fraud and that the results are not accurate or to be trusted. As the Campaign Legal Center’s Jonathan Diaz told NBC News in September 2024, “Creating doubt in the mind of the public and undermin[ing] the electoral system … possibly makes it easier for the public to swallow attempts to overturn the results.”

American Oversight has filed dozens of public records requests to investigate how this tactic is being deployed by anti-democracy activists and politicians. 

• We sent requests to governor’s offices in Florida, Georgia, Iowa, North Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming for communications regarding a model executive order published by the America First Policy Institute requiring voters’ citizenship status to be verified by election offices.
• In Virginia, we submitted requests to various agencies for related communications, including with election integrity activists, and directives or guidance related to Youngkin’s executive order.
• In Georgia, we sent a public records request to the Georgia State Election Board for communications related to the board’s “U.S. CITIZENS ONLY” sign measure.
• In Arizona, we filed public records requests related to America First Legal’s letters to 15 county recorders encouraging them to remove non-citizens from voter rolls.
• We sent requests to governor’s offices, secretary of state offices, and select legislators in Iowa, Idaho, Missouri, Wisconsin, and West Virginia to learn more about the states’ ballot measures that would ban noncitizens from voting.
• Ohio Secretary LaRose instructed county boards of elections to begin removing noncitizen voters from election registration rolls. We sent requests to Hamilton, Summit, Montgomery, Franklin, and Cuyahoga counties, as well as to LaRose’s office, seeking communications and directives related to these purges.
• Voter-fraud alarmist Hans von Spakovsky alleged in June that the Fairfax Board of Elections had investigated 117 noncitizens that voted in Virginia elections in 2011. We requested records from the board pertaining to this investigation.
• We submitted records requests to Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arizona seeking records from state election officials, state DMVs, and state departments of transportation to uncover whether and to what extent officials may be attempting to identify potential noncitizens on the voter rolls.
• In Florida, we submitted requests to the Department of State and the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles after Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd signaled that his office was exploring whether to require citizenship status on driver’s licenses to prevent non-citizens from voting. 

The specter of votes being illegally cast by noncitizens has become a new conservative talking point intended to further doubts in election results and voter suppression.