[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 89 (Wednesday, May 22, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3843-S3844]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 4292

  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, as in legislative session, notwithstanding 
rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Rules and 
Administration be discharged from further consideration of S. 4292 and 
the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the 
bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. PADILLA. Reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
  Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I read the measure that is being 
attempted to be brought up by this motion. I want to make one thing 
perfectly clear. It is already a Federal crime for noncitizens to vote 
in Federal elections. Every Member of the Senate should know that. In 
fact, any noncitizen convicted of even registering to vote could face 
up to 5 years in prison.
  Every single State has a law prohibiting noncitizens from voting in 
Federal elections. The consequences for noncitizens go beyond prison 
time. Claiming to be a U.S. citizen, under penalty of perjury, while 
registering to vote or while actually voting are deportable offenses. 
So it is already against the law with significant consequences for 
violations.
  And, in fact, experts have found that voting by noncitizens is 
exceedingly rare. A study of the 2016 election, for example, found that 
noncitizen votes accounted for--let me get this right--0.0001 percent. 
Doing the math, that is about 30 incidents of suspected--not even 
proven, suspected--noncitizens voting out of 23.5 million votes cast.
  What does that tell us? It tells us that our current laws are 
working. Don't just take my word for it. The Cato Institute agrees. In 
November of 2020, the Cato Institute found that ``noncitizens don't 
illegally vote in detectable numbers.''
  So, colleagues, plain and simple, this bill is a solution in search 
of a problem. What it attempts to do is, once again, make it harder for 
eligible Americans to vote or to discourage people from voting, 
particularly American citizens who happen to be experiencing 
homelessness, for U.S. citizens of color, for U.S. citizens without 
driver's licenses. Do they have any less of a right to vote than any of 
us or less of a claim to our country?
  I speak today, Mr. President, as both a former California secretary 
of state as well as being a Member of this body. I have always believed 
that our democracy works best when as many eligible people participate. 
That is why I, along with several of our Democratic colleagues, 
introduced the Freedom to Vote Act. Now, the Freedom to Vote Act does 
not extend registration or voting rights to noncitizens. What does the 
Freedom to Vote Act do? It includes pro-voter policies for eligible 
Americans, like early voting, vote-by-mail. Imagine that, making it 
easier for eligible U.S. citizens to exercise their franchise. That is 
the American way. Whereas, this bill would only serve as yet another 
barrier to participation by imposing not just extremely burdensome but 
unnecessary requirements on registering to vote.
  Therefore, Mr. President, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, it is unfortunate that it didn't have the 
chance to pass this today. I would have loved to have passed it. The 
reason I would love to have passed it is because, as my friend and 
distinguished colleague, the Senator from California, just noted, it is 
illegal for a noncitizen to vote. Because it is illegal for a 
noncitizen to vote, we need to make sure that it doesn't happen.
  The fact that it is prohibited by a law with Federal criminal 
penalties attached to it doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. It 
doesn't mean that it couldn't happen. It doesn't mean that it is not 
more likely to happen when we bring a whole lot more noncitizens into 
the country. There are now an estimated 30 million or so noncitizens 
inside the United States.
  My friend and colleague from California cites a couple of studies. 
One of those studies is from the Cato Institute from 2020. This was 
about 12 million noncitizens ago. Under this administration, we let in 
an additional 12 million or so noncitizens into the United States. That 
rapid of an influx can cause problems.
  He also cites another study from 2016. That 2016 study was probably 
15 or 16 million noncitizens ago. Things do change.
  Now, the Cato study, the one from 2020 that he mentioned, says that 
there is no evidence that noncitizens are voting in detectable numbers. 
It doesn't mean it is not happening. It may mean that they are 
difficult to detect. But the more noncitizens we have, the more time 
that elapses when the National Voter Registration Act, or NVRA, remains 
intact, the more predictable, foreseeable, and, indeed, likely it 
becomes that many people, some of them perhaps maliciously, knowingly 
intend to violate the law. Others who might be in sort of a gray area, 
not quite realizing what they are doing or the fact that it is illegal, 
might end up registering to vote.
  Let's remember, in 1993, Congress passed the so-called motor voter 
law, the National Voter Registration Act.
  It made it very easy to register to vote in Federal elections. All 
you have to do is check a box and sign your name. It is all on the 
honor system. If you do that, you are registered to vote.
  Now fast-forward two decades. The Supreme Court of the United States 
decides a case interpreting the National Voter Registration Act as 
prohibiting the States--preempting the field in such a way that States 
may not request any proof, any evidence of citizenship when registering 
someone to vote such that they would be eligible to cast a vote in a 
Federal election.
  Meanwhile, we have a change in trend. Decades ago when the NVRA was 
passed, No. 1, we had far fewer illegal aliens in the country, and we 
also, No. 2, had a lot of States that wouldn't issue a driver's license 
or were reluctant to do so to someone who was illegally in the United 
States. It is now the case that at least 19 States issue driver's 
licenses to individuals who are unlawfully, illegally in the United 
States. All 50 States plus the District of Columbia issue driver's 
licenses to noncitizens generally.
  What that means is that somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 million 
people, or at least the adult segment--that portion of the nearly 30 
million people who are noncitizens inside the United States today--all 
they have to do is go get a driver's license, which most of them, if 
they have any interaction with other members of society, are likely to 
do, to go get a driver's license--you need a driver's license for all 
kinds of things. Once they do that, if they check that box and sign 
their name, all on the honor system, they are registered to vote. Not 
only does the State not necessarily know that they are noncitizens and 
ineligible to vote, the State is legally constrained, legally 
prohibited from asking for any evidence establishing whether or not 
they are citizens.
  So this really is concerning. We shouldn't treat it lightly. And the 
fact that it is difficult to detect makes it more important, not less, 
to require evidence supporting citizenship.
  Look, we have to do this in other contexts. Anyone that travels 
abroad or might at some point in the future travel abroad will have to 
apply for a U.S. passport. To do that, you are going to have to produce 
some sort of evidence of U.S. citizenship.
  When you start a new job in the United States, you have to fill out 
an I-9 form. Under the I-9 form, if you are a noncitizen, you have to 
produce evidence of your visa and your eligibility under your visa 
program to work. If you are not here on a visa and you are an American, 
then you have to produce evidence that you are, in fact, a citizen of 
the United States.
  So if you have to produce that stuff to get a passport, if you have 
to produce that stuff whenever you start a new job, why would it not 
make sense to require proof of citizenship upon registering to vote in 
a Federal election? How else are we supposed to protect our elections, 
our sacred elections within our constitutional Republic, from foreign 
interference?
  Look, one person, one vote. One citizen, one vote. This is how it is 
supposed to work. This is a foundational principle, and it is under 
unprecedented threat today. It is under threat

[[Page S3844]]

specifically because President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas have 
refused willfully to enforce the law. Now we face a direct threat to 
our electoral system as a result.
  Consider this: Since President Biden's inauguration, over 9.5 million 
undocumented immigrants have entered the United States illegally and 
have been observed. An estimated 12 million or so have come in. That 
includes the people estimated to have entered without being observed. 
This figure exceeds the populations of 36 U.S. States, creating a 
crisis that has been met with just troubling silence and inaction from 
many across the aisle.
  With millions of unauthorized entrants on U.S. soil, the potential 
for election fraud through ineligible voting is not just a hypothetical 
risk, it is a looming reality.
  Instead of urging the President of the United States to address this 
crisis, Democrats seem to prefer to resurrect the so-called Orwellian-
named Border Security Act, a bill that has already failed in this body 
and will do nothing to mitigate the border issues at hand--the border 
issues created and then exacerbated by this administration.
  With the influx of noncitizens under this administration, even if 
just a fraction--say 1 in 100--were to vote, this could translate to 
hundreds of thousands of votes, enough certainly to sway tightly 
contested elections and potentially alter the outcome even in something 
as significant and with nationwide implications as far-reaching as a 
Presidential election.
  This is concerning considering that a recent study found noncitizens 
have ample openings to illegally vote. Somewhere between 10 percent and 
27 percent of noncitizens are registered to vote, and somewhere between 
5 percent and 13 percent of noncitizens vote in Federal elections, 
including Presidential elections.
  Across the Nation, instances abound where States have inadvertently 
facilitated the crisis. I say inadvertently, but in some ways, their 
hands are tied. ``Inadvertently'' here sort of refers to the fact that 
they don't necessarily mean to; it is that they are prohibited from 
asking for proof of citizenship.
  From unsolicited voter registration forms mailed to noncitizens, to 
driver's licenses issued without adequate checks, practices relying 
merely on the honesty of noncitizens, including illegal aliens, have 
opened the floodgates to voter fraud.
  While it is true that it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote 
in Federal elections, there really are no effective systems in place to 
verify the citizenship of voters. A mere check on a box is all it 
takes, with little risk--very little risk--of being caught due to 
inadequate State election infrastructure.
  Federal law even prevents States from requiring proof of citizenship 
when registering voters via Federal forms.
  An increasing number of localities permit noncitizens to vote in 
local elections, further blurring the distinctions meant to protect the 
integrity of our elections.
  Prominent Democrats have openly discussed these tactics as not just 
existing elements but as things that are beneficial to their agenda. 
Only months ago, every Senate Democrat voted to count illegal aliens in 
the census to help them shore up more seats in Congress and more 
electoral votes in the electoral college.
  This cannot continue. It is our responsibility, it is our moral 
imperative to close these gates. My bill, the Safeguard American Voter 
Eligibility Act--also known as the SAVE Act--would be a vital step in 
securing the electoral process, ensuring that in every State, every 
vote cast is legitimate and every voter is duly registered.
  The SAVE Act proposes amending the National Voter Registration Act to 
enable States to require proof of citizenship when registering voters 
for purposes of Federal elections.
  Under the SAVE Act, we mandate that States obtain concrete 
documentary proof of citizenship at the time of voter registration. It 
specifies acceptable documentation that really is desperately needed. 
It is far more injurious, if you want to compare the two. If you want 
to talk about the amount of burdensome paperwork that goes on relative 
to what it is that needs protecting, I think it is at least as harmful, 
if not far more so, to fail to require documentation and proof of 
citizenship in the context of voting in a Federal election than it is 
when completing an I-9, which everyone has to do when they start a new 
job, citizen and noncitizen alike.
  Furthermore, the SAVE Act compels States to proactively remove 
noncitizens from voter rolls and introduces Federal penalties for those 
who intentionally register noncitizens.
  This bill echoes the sentiments of the American people from coast to 
coast. It transcends political affiliations and speaks directly to the 
core of what makes our country great: fair, free, and secure elections.
  This is about preserving the integrity of our elections and ensuring 
that each State will have the opportunity to participate in a way that 
involves each vote being cast to reflect the American will.
  If this administration insists upon keeping America's borders open, 
then the administration must also ensure that none of these illegal 
immigrants are thwarting our free and fair elections.
  Look, this border crisis--make no mistake--was deliberately 
engineered and has been willfully perpetuated by this administration. 
Now, they shouldn't want open borders. There are a lot of good reasons 
why this is a bad idea, a lot of reasons why we shouldn't allow this. 
There are a lot of people like Laken Riley who have lost their lives or 
have otherwise endured heartache, trauma, and devastating consequences 
because of people who should not have been here to begin with.

  But if this is what they want, then for the love of all that is 
sacred and holy, please, they should at a minimum have the decency to 
their fellow Americans to make sure that those same people who they 
have willfully allowed to enter our country against our law and against 
the will of the American people at least not be able to vote in our 
elections because they are not citizens.
  Every day we delay, the foundation of our electoral processes erodes 
a little more. We can't wait for this administration to enforce the law 
because this administration isn't enforcing the law.
  By passing the SAVE Act, we send a clear message that in the United 
States, voting is not just a right and a privilege of citizenship, but 
it is also a protected and a cherished one--one that our own government 
won't deliberately allow to be diluted and made less meaningful.
  As debates about election integrity rage, the SAVE Act stands out by 
guaranteeing that only American citizens will have a say in our 
elections, thereby keeping those elections free from foreign 
interference--something we all care about.
  American elections must be decided by American voters, full stop.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.