State of Texas falsely passed off registered immigrant voters as non-citizens
The State of Texas used faulty data to question the citizenship status of tens of thousands of eligible, foreign-born voters in a systematic attempt at voter suppression, according to a lawsuit filed by civil rights groups.
The lawsuit was filed in response to a Jan. 25 advisory, issued by Texas Secretary of State David Whitley, in which county registrars were given a list of 95,000 registered voters who Whitley suggested were illegal voters because they were non-citizens when they applied for their driver’s licenses.
The problem is that Texas driver’s licenses are valid for six years, meaning that citizenship status cannot be inferred on the basis of driver’s license applications, according to the lawsuit filed by the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
Indeed, tens of thousands of people on the list were, in fact, naturalized citizens by the time they registered as voters, the lawsuit states.