Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Using Immigration Database for Voter Roll Verification

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s use of an immigration database for purging noncitizens from state voter rolls, saying that it violated the privacy rights of American citizens.

Judge Sparkle Sooknanan of the District Court for the District of Columbia in a June 22 ruling said the administration’s use of a restructured Department of Homeland Security (DHS) database violated several privacy laws in disclosing Americans’ Social Security numbers, citizenship status, and other sensitive data.

“All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” Sooknanan wrote in her 75-page decision. “This court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”

President Donald Trump signed a presidential action on March 25, 2025, titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” instructing federal agencies to develop a centralized database to use for mass citizenship verification of state voter rolls.

Sooknanan wrote in her decision that the agencies were “scrambling” to comply with Trump’s directive and knowingly violated Americans’ rights in “haphazardly” assembling the database.

She stated that the Trump administration knew the data being inserted into the system were inaccurate and unreliable.

“States have partnered with the federal government to access the database and are actively removing United States citizens from voter rolls,” Sooknanan wrote.

As part of Trump’s directive, the administration instructed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Social Security Administration (SSA), and other federal agencies to restructure an existing DHS database used to verify citizenship and immigration status, called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, system.

The overhaul of the system involved including records of natural-born U.S. citizens, accessing SSA records, and permitting bulk searches of records by SAVE users, Sooknanan said.

Several lawsuits followed Trump’s order, including from the League of Women Voters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which were plaintiffs in the case ruled on by Sooknanan.

Members of the groups were wrongfully identified as noncitizens by the revamped SAVE system, Sooknanan wrote, which resulted in the termination of their voter registration.

She agreed with the plaintiffs that the database was unlawful in multiple ways.

First, it violated the Social Security Act, which prevents the disclosure of Social Security numbers and other SSA records, Sooknanan said. The Trump administration allegedly violated this act by sharing private SSA information with other agencies and states, plaintiffs argued.

Sooknanan also ruled that the system violated the Privacy Act, which governs how federal agencies maintain and share information on citizens. Plaintiffs alleged the federal government violated this act through sharing information between agencies without their consent.

In addition, the judge said the revamped SAVE system violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a framework for how federal agencies propose and adopt regulations or policies.

“The court therefore sets aside and vacates the 2025 SAVE modified system,” Sooknanan wrote, because it was “contrary to law, arbitrary and capricious, in excess of statutory authority, and without observance of procedure required by law.”

The Trump administration cited other federal laws as authority for the modification of the SAVE system, arguing with the Immigration Reform and Control Act and Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act was signed into law in 1986. The Trump administration pointed to a provision within the legislation that said DHS shall implement a verification system for immigration status to be available to the states, but the judge said this section is only to be used for noncitizens’ benefits applications.

In 1996, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act was enacted. It’s a sweeping law on immigration enforcement that says DHS shall respond to federal, state, or local agencies’ inquiries on citizenship verification of individuals, which is what the Trump administration argued that the SAVE system is doing.

But Sooknanan wrote that the federal government has “never needed SSA data” for citizenship verifications.

“None of the provisions that the Defendants cite support the overhaul of SAVE,” Sooknanan said.

The decision is the latest development in a slew of legal actions opposing Trump’s efforts for citizenship verification and election integrity that include allowing state and local authorities to use federal databases to verify the immigration status of individuals on voter rolls.

In addition to the League of Women Voters and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, several states have sued to block the requirement of handing over voter rolls to the federal government.

The Department of Justice has filed suit against states refusing to hand over the records.

Meanwhile, a coalition of 12 attorneys general has petitioned courts in Massachusetts and Washington to defend the Trump administration’s efforts.

The White House referred The Epoch Times to the DHS for comment.

Neither Homeland Security nor the SSA responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.