Florida Citizenship Status Information Access Challenge

Lawsuit filed by the state of Florida and Florida Department of State against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, challenging the federal government’s refusal to provide citizenship status information. Florida verifies the citizenship status of registered voters on the state’s voter rolls using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program — an online service used by government agencies to check an individual’s immigration status. However, the state is not able to conduct a SAVE inquiry on individuals without a “unique immigration identifier,” which is assigned to noncitizens by the federal government. 

On Sept. 10, 2024, Florida sent a request to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asking the department to verify the citizenship status of a number of individuals on the state’s voter rolls who could not be verified through the SAVE program. The state claims that the department denied its request and confirmed “there is no other method of verifying the immigration or citizenship status of an individual available to state agencies apart from SAVE.” Florida argues the federal government’s refusal to provide additional citizenship status information violates federal law, and asks the court to compel the federal government to provide the state with the requested citizenship status information.

STATUS: Florida filed its complaint on Oct. 16, 2024. The federal government has not responded yet.

Last updated: October 17, 2024 12:46 pm EST