After three years of importing millions of illegal aliens under President Joe Biden and “Border Czar” Kamala Harris’s open-border regime, I’m hearing fears from my own constituents as well as from people across the country that non-citizens and illegal aliens might vote and sway the outcome of the 2024 election. Meanwhile, the threat of a destructive post-election lame duck session that will empower Democrats and pave the way for all manner of legislative sins looms ahead.
Republicans can use the September 30 funding deadline to tackle both of these issues by attaching the SAVE Act to a funding extension into 2025.
Doing so forces Democrats to answer a simple question: “Do you support requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, or do you support non-citizens illegally voting?” It also prevents the uniparty from using the lame duck to pass another cap-busting omnibus spending bill that solidifies the Democrats’ radical agenda through the beginning of a potential Trump administration.
No wonder members of the uniparty — from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — hate this play; it puts them in the last place on earth they want to be: trapped in indefensible opposition to the demands of the vast majority of the American people.
In July, we passed the SAVE Act (H.R. 8281) through the House of Representatives on a bipartisan basis. The bill simply requires states to check citizenship before registering an individual to vote and gives states tools to identify and remove non-citizens that are already registered, all while ensuring every eligible U.S. citizen can vote.
Yet, Chuck Schumer and his cronies have blocked consideration of the SAVE Act in the Senate. That’s why it is critical we force the question by attaching it to a funding resolution, which would force Senate Democrats to address it.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) speaks at a news conference with members of the House Freedom Caucus outside the U.S. Capitol on September 12, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Democrats have tried — and failed — to dismiss the importance of the SAVE Act, erroneously claiming that allowing millions of illegal aliens into the country will not impact our elections because, according to the Biden-Harris administration, “It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections.”
They fail to mention that the Supreme Court’s interpretation of current federal law literally prevents states from verifying the citizenship status of individuals registering to vote in federal elections. They further fail to tell you that multiple Democrat-run jurisdictions are actively working to register non-citizens to vote. The SAVE Act fixes each of these problems.
Republican administrations throughout the country are shining a light on the absurdity of the Democrats’ position. Just last month, the state of Texas announced it had removed over 6,500 non-citizens from its voter rolls since 2021. Also last month, Jason Miyares, Virginia’s Attorney General, said the state had removed over 6,300 non-citizens from its voter rolls.
But removing non-citizens from voter rolls seems unique to Republican administrations. Executive branches in critical swing states like Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina are controlled by Democrats and have made no such effort. Remember, these states were carried by just a few thousand votes in recent elections, meaning every non-citizen that is registered could sway the outcome. Democrats know this.
Democrats — and too many Republicans — also fear the prospect of a future Trump administration. That is why the uniparty wants a lame duck session because it provides the opportunity to hamstring the next administration.
Case in point: in December 2022, just after Republicans won the House in the midterms, Democrats — aided by 18 Republican senators — passed a $1.7 trillion omnibus that cemented Democrat policies and gave $45 billion to Ukraine. They did this even though the incoming House GOP majority urged Senate Republicans to allow us to shape the appropriations bills in the new year.
History will repeat itself this December if Republicans refuse to do the right thing, which is to freeze spending at current levels into — or even all the way through — 2025.
If President Donald Trump wins, Democrats will jump at the opportunity to pass an omnibus that busts the current spending caps in law and handcuffs his administration in its first nine months. Further, Senate warmongers are already clamoring for more Ukraine funding before it “lapses” in January. The debt limit also kicks back in January 2025, meaning Democrats and weak-kneed Republicans will push for a multi-trillion debt ceiling increase devoid of spending restraint out of fear of “default.”
The threat of both non-citizens voting and a lame duck session is why the House Freedom Caucus is in the historically unique position of formally pushing for a continuing resolution into 2025 with the SAVE Act attached.
I understand the desire to dig in and pass single subject appropriations bills that contain conservative policy riders (like defunding Jack Smith’s politicized prosecution of President Trump). I am no fan of funding extensions (aka “continuing resolutions”), but the time for the House to pass and force the Senate to take up strong full-year appropriations bills has come and gone. Congress has been — against better judgment — out all August; we simply will not pass the seven remaining appropriations bills and then negotiate with the Senate, which hasn’t passed a single appropriations measure for fiscal year 2025, before September 30.
That means now is the time for Republicans to put up or shut up.
Instead of giving Democrats and big-spending Republicans exactly what they want, we should demand that we avoid a lame duck spending Christmas tree. We should force Democrats to explain their opposition to common sense proof of citizenship requirements, given that over 80 percent of Americans support them!
Only American citizens should vote in American elections — as clearly contemplated in the text of the United States Constitution and supported by law. Swamp creatures of either party shouldn’t pass massive omnibus spending bills right before Christmas. So, Republicans can deliver a win-win to the American people on both issues by passing a spending freeze at current levels into, or through, 2025 and by attaching the SAVE Act to protect U.S. citizens’ votes.
Let’s deliver for the American people.
Chip Roy represents Texas’ 21st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.