Judge Shuts Down Trump Admin Database Used To Remove Non-Citizens From Voter Rolls

Interesting 2026 midterms, department of homeland security, federal judge, mike lee, save act, social security administration, texas, voting admin June 23, 2026 0 Comments

Judge Shuts Down Trump Admin Database Used To Remove Non-Citizens From Voter Rolls

A Biden-appointed federal judge shut down a database used to remove noncitizens from voter rolls Monday.

The 75-page opinion, issued by Sparkle L. Sooknanan, follows a civil action suit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the state of Texas by parties including the League of Women Voters. (RELATED: Trump Admin Threatens To Pull Critical Federal Funds Unless States Adopt Election Measures)

The decision set aside a modified version of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, created following a Trump-signed executive order to “verify the citizenship or immigration status of registered voters or individuals registering to vote,” and put in place by the DHS and SSA.

Sooknanan justified vacating the SAVE system by citing “two fundamental rights that protect Americans from government overreach,” namely the right to privacy and the right to vote.

A voter works on his ballot at a polling station at the Elena Bozeman Government Center in Arlington, Virginia, on September 20, 2024. (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

She pointed to the 2025 modified version of the SAVE system as an overreach, as it included the records of natural-born citizens, direct access to SSA records, and allowed state users to conduct automated “bulk searches” rather than individualized queries.

She said the database, shared among several federal agencies, contains private information on U.S. citizens and thus violates protections put in place by Congress to prevent such centralized data banks, including the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988.

The defendants argued that other, more specific immigration laws overrode the general restrictions of the 1988 act, specifically pointing to the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which mandates that the federal government respond to state inquiries to verify the citizenship status of any individual.

However, Sooknanan declared the argument “not a winner.”

Sooknanan also blocked the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust probe into Media Matters and barred the executive branch from deporting unaccompanied migrant minors and reunifying them with their families abroad.

The ruling comes as both Republicans and Democrats prepare for the upcoming midterm elections and as Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee again attempts to advance the SAVE America Act in the Senate, with the goal of requiring a government-issued ID to vote.

“The American people OVERWHELMINGLY support this … regardless of political party. Want to make it easy to vote, HARD TO CHEAT. That’s what the House-passed SAVE America Act does,” Lee said Sunday on Fox News.