The Washington Examiner
Sen. Rick Scott 
September 10, 2024

We have a wide open southern border, and every month, hundreds of thousands of people are breaking into our country illegally. No serious person disputes this. 

Our “border czar,” Vice President Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden have allowed this to happen. Again, this is indisputable. 

The Biden administration’s immigration policies are not just the result of wild incompetence. The Democrats in charge of Washington, D.C., have presided over massive failures while in office, and they have nothing else to run on, so it is only logical to assume they like the idea of people coming here illegally so they can vote in our elections and help Democrats win.

In fact, the Democrats are actively opposing a bill that would prevent illegal immigrants from voting in U.S. elections, known as the SAVE Act. This legislation makes clear only U.S. citizens get to vote in our elections. This should not be a controversial notion at all, but the Democrats are opposing it right now. 

We can’t let Democrats destroy our elections with illegal voting and fraud. We must pass the SAVE Act, introduced by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and myself, to demand that only U.S. citizens get to vote and decide the future of our country.

Republicans and Democrats alike (including the socialist I am running against in Florida) have claimed that because voting by non-citizens in federal elections is already illegal, we don’t need to take any additional action. By that logic, we shouldn’t have a border crisis because it is already illegal to cross the U.S. border without documentation. Clearly, having laws that are not enforced because of radical politicians such as Harris is not enough. 

We need to mandate citizenship verification because we cannot risk allowing the non-citizens Harris has illegally let into our country to vote in our elections. With November’s presidential election less than 60 days away, we have to make sure we do all we can to ensure there is 0% fraud.

But we know some noncitizens are already exploiting the gaps in our election laws.  

Last month alone, three states made shocking announcements that should have grabbed the attention of every member of Congress. In the first two weeks of August, Texas, Alabama, and Virginia, all under Republican governors, released reports showing they had removed a combined 16,000 non-citizens from their states’ voter rolls. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) said as many as 2,000 non-citizens may have voted in prior elections in the Lone Star State.

The SAVE Act would fix this. This bill requires two things. First, it mandates that states must obtain documentary proof of U.S. citizenship and identity in person when registering an individual to vote in a federal election. Second, it requires the states to remove non-citizens from their existing voter rolls and gives states no-cost access to the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration databases to do so.

This is a common-sense policy that protects our elections, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) refuses to let it pass. Thankfully, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) cares about the integrity of our elections and is demanding that it be attached to the upcoming continuing resolution to fund the government. 

I am not a fan of continuing resolutions. Congress should do its basic job: funding the government and balancing the budget. It fails at this constantly, which is one of the many reasons why I challenged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and why I am running again to be Senate Republican leader.

But the negotiations present an opportunity for lawmakers to both fund the government and stop illegal immigrants from voting. I refuse to cave to Schumer and the Washington establishment and have no intention of supporting any funding measure that doesn’t include the SAVE Act.

Rick Scott represents Florida in the United States Senate. He is the former governor of Florida.