President Donald Trump is asking the Senate to abolish the Senate filibuster and adopt the SAVE America Act to get illegal aliens off of the voter rolls and to require proof of citizenship to register to vote from now on, citing over 250,000 non-citizens are illegally registered to vote in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada alone. So far, the Senate is saying there aren’t the votes to abolish the filibuster.
What can be done in the interim, then?
Anyone registering to vote in the United States fills out the form under penalty of perjury, including the section where they check off if they’re a U.S. citizen. Meaning, any non-citizens registering to vote, whether they are legal or illegal aliens, are definitely breaking the law — and that would be grounds for deportation under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Specifically, 18 U.S. Code Sec. 1015(f) bars aliens from claiming they are citizens to register to vote, with the penalty up to five years in prison: “Whoever knowingly makes any false statement or claim that he is a citizen of the United States in order to register to vote or to vote in any Federal, State, or local election (including an initiative, recall, or referendum) … Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both…”
And under 8 U.S. Code Sec. 1227(a)(3)(D)(i), any alien who claims to be a citizen to obtain any benefit is subject to deportation: “Any alien who falsely represents, or has falsely represented, himself to be a citizen of the United States for any purpose or benefit under this chapter (including section 1324a of this title) or any Federal or State law is deportable.”
Under the Help America Vote Act and the National Voter Registration Act, those aliens being deported should be removed from the rolls.
Specifically, anyone who moves out of a state is subject to removal from the voter rolls of that state under 52 U.S. Code Sec. 20507(a)(4): “In the administration of voter registration for elections for Federal office, each State shall… conduct a general program that makes a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters by reason of … the death of the registrant; or … a change in the residence of the registrant…”
That’s it, death and change of address. Well, deportees are definitely getting their addresses changed.
From there, either the person has to notify the state that they no longer live there — maybe they sign a sworn statement, perhaps in the form of a plea deal from having falsely registered in the first place and upon being deported that says they’re moving, and then that gets forwarded to the state and off the rolls they go.
Or for those already deported, the U.S. Postal Service can verify it under 52 U.S. Code Sec. 20507(c)(1)(B)(ii): “A State may meet the requirement of subsection (a)(4) by establishing a program under which… if it appears from information provided by the Postal Service that… the registrant has moved to a different residence address not in the same registrar’s jurisdiction…”
Otherwise, guidelines from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in 2024 say that improper registrations can be removed from the voter rolls: “Finally, States can remove people who were ineligible or improperly registered in the first instance.” And so for those cases, the Justice Department can sue the states that refuse to scrub their voter rolls of provable non-citizens.
It appears, then, there is enough of a basis to clean up states’ voter rolls of non-citizens, provided they can be minimally identified. Removing them from the country might help, notwithstanding whether the Senate can muster 50 votes to overcome the filibuster and pass the SAVE America Act.
President Trump should just assume they don’t have the votes at this point. The 2026 Congressional midterms are almost here and then the 2028 presidential cycle will begin very quickly—and the voter rolls won’t be in any better condition.
Federal law provides that states should have their voter rolls cleaned up 90 days prior to the election under 52 U.S. Code Sec. 20507(c)(2)(A): “A State shall complete, not later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary or general election for Federal office, any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters.”
With Election Day on Nov. 3, 2026, that means that states have until Aug. 5 thereabouts to clean up their voter rolls. Time’s almost up for 2026 to have the voter rolls cleaned. Better get cracking or else 2028 won’t look much better.
Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government.
