The House passed the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act on Thursday, with 208 Democrats voting against the President Donald Trump-backed measure that would crack down on noncitizen voting.
The SAVE Act, which passed 220-208, now heads to the Senate, where it will need the support of some Democrats to meet the 60-vote threshold for advancement. Democrats have rejected the bill, despite polling indicating bipartisan support for voter ID requirements.
A Gallup Poll released ahead of the 2024 election found that 84% of respondents favor requiring a photo ID to vote, and 83% support requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote for the first time.
If passed in the Senate and signed into law by Trump, the SAVE Act by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, would require voters to obtain proof of citizenship in person before they register for a federal election, and it would remove noncitizens from voter rolls.
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“After four years of mass illegal immigration facilitated by the Biden administration, it is more important now than ever to ensure only American citizens are voting in American elections. By passing the SAVE Act, House Republicans are once again proving our commitment to defending the will of the American people,” House GOP Majority Whip Tom Emmer told Fox News Digital.
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Meanwhile, Democrats have rejected the implication that illegal immigrants are voting in U.S. elections. Nineteen Democrat-led states and Democrat leaders sued the Trump administration’s election integrity executive order requiring proof of citizenship to vote in American elections.
“Noncitizens attempting to register to vote is exceedingly rare, and if they do, they face severe consequences, including fines up to five years in prison, and deportation,” Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., said on the House floor, urging her colleagues to reject the SAVE Act.
“Coupled with President Trump’s recent anti-voter election executive order, the SAVE Act would end the voter registration process for all Americans as they know it. Republicans have repeatedly failed to present any evidence that noncitizen voting at a federal level has ever affected the outcome of any election,” Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., added in opposition to what he called the “extremist anti-voter SAVE Act.”
The SAVE Act passed a procedural hurdle known as a “rule vote” on Wednesday. A simple majority of House lawmakers was needed to pass the “rule” to allow for debate and eventual House-wide votes on the legislation.
It was first introduced in July 2024 under former President Joe Biden’s administration and failed to pass through the Democrat majority in the Senate. Roy reintroduced the bill in January as the bill was more likely to pass under a Republican-controlled House, Senate and White House.
“The American people have spoken very clearly that they believe only American citizens should vote in American elections. There’s nothing controversial about that,” Roy said on the House floor ahead of the votes.
“This legislation is designed to restore that faith, to save our elections, to save election integrity. I’m proud to have worked on this bill with my friend, the Chairman, with my colleagues on this side of the aisle, and I would note that five of my Democrat colleagues joined us last summer to vote for this bill. Hardly a partisan exercise to say that we should protect the elections of the American people,” he added.
The bill made headway during the 2024 presidential election as the Republican National Committee (RNC) led voter integrity efforts in battleground states across the country. Trump has long supported the legislation and held a Mar-a-Lago press conference last summer with House Speaker Mike Johnson affirming Republican support for the bill.
Voter registration is handled on the state level, so rules requiring proof of citizenship or photo ID differ by state. Thirty-six states request or require identification to vote. The SAVE Act would federalize the issue, requiring proof of citizenship to vote and removing non-citizens from voter rolls.
When Virginia, led by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, attempted to remove non-citizens from the state’s voter rolls, Biden’s Justice Department rejected the program and tried to restore the canceled voter registrations. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority upheld Virginia’s removal of about 1,600 people from the voter rolls.
