(The Center Square) – The Texas Secretary of State has referred the names of 33 potential noncitizens to the Office of Attorney General to investigate alleged voter fraud.

The referral was made after the SOS was given access to a federal database to check its voter rolls after suing the previous administration to have access.

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Under the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security made available a database to state governments to check their voter rolls to determine if any illegal foreign nationals registered to vote or voted in their states.

Under DHS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) uses the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program to make immigration status information available to state agencies. It was created to share information with federal, state and local agencies “for any legal purpose, such as credentials, background investigations, and voter registration,” a lawsuit filed against DHS by Florida last year states. Florida has been engaged in more than a decade of litigation and interactions with DHS on the issue, The Center Square reported.

In March, President Donald Trump issued an election integrity executive order directing DHS to provide states with free access to the SAVE database.

“The right of American citizens to have their votes properly counted and tabulated, without illegal dilution, is vital to determining the rightful winner of an election,” the order states, adding that the federal government hasn’t adequately taken actions “to prohibit non-citizens from registering to vote.”

The order cites federal law, 52 U.S.C. 30121, which “prohibits foreign nationals from participating in federal, state, or local elections by making any contributions or expenditures.” However, “foreign nationals and non-governmental organizations have taken advantage of loopholes in the law’s interpretation, spending millions of dollars through conduit contributions and ballot-initiative-related expenditures,” the order states, undermining “the right of American citizens to govern their Republic.”

The order includes a series of directives, including requiring proof of citizenship to vote and requiring the USCIS and DOGE to “review each State’s publicly available voter registration list and available records concerning voter list maintenance activities.”

“Gaining access to this database has been a game-changer. Not only have we been able to identify individuals who should not have voted in the last election, we have also been able to confirm naturalization of dozens more,” Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said.

“Having worked to gain this access for more than a year, Texas was among the first states to log in and recently joined a pilot program working with DHS, USCIS and DOGE to improve the database’s functionality,” she said. “We are in the early stages of this pilot program, but we already see promising results. This may be the most current and accurate data set there is when it comes to citizenship verification.”

The Secretary of State is required to report potential criminal election violations to the Texas Office of Attorney General, which investigates election fraud. Nelson’s referral includes “the names of 33 potential noncitizens who voted in the November 2024 General Election” for the OAG to investigate.

Gov. Greg Abbott praised the federal policy reversal and work of Nelson’s office, saying, “Texas continues to monitor voter rolls. Whenever we find noncitizen voters we refer them for criminal investigation. To be clear, only legal citizens can vote,” he said.

Under the Biden administration, SAVE database information wasn’t made available, prompting 16 states to sue, including Texas. The AGs raised “grave concerns that by failing to work with States to verify voter registration information, [DHS] has failed to discharge its duty ahead of a national election,” they argued, The Center Square reported.

Last year, Texas removed 6,500 noncitizens from its voter rolls but requested information on noncitizens from DHS/USCIS, The Center Square reported. This included a list of 454,289 registered voters in Texas “who have never had their citizenship verified.” Texas didn’t receive the requested information.

Fast forward six months later and the SAVE database was made available to all states.

This year, the Texas legislature also passed a resolution, SJR 37, to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot for voters to approve or reject, clarifying that only U.S. citizens can vote in Texas.

“I just signed off on a joint resolution to make it crystal clear that under the Texas Constitution that if you are not a citizen of the United States of America, you are not allowed to vote in Texas,” Abbott said when he signed SJR 37 last month.

Only Texas Democrats voted against it: three in the Senate; 14 in the House voted against it; 22 voted present, The Center Square reported.