Thousands of Illegal Immigrants Found Registered to Vote in Texas

Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson announced this week that more than 2,700 potential noncitizens have been discovered on the state’s voter rolls following a comprehensive review of the state’s 18 million registered voters.

After cross-referencing the voter database with the federal SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) system, officials identified 2,724 individuals who may not be eligible to vote under Texas law.

“Only eligible United States citizens may participate in our elections,” Nelson said in a statement.

“The Trump Administration’s decision to give states free and direct access to this data set for the first time has been a game changer, and we appreciate the partnership with the federal government to verify the citizenship of those on our voter rolls and maintain accurate voter lists.”

Nelson said county election officials will now investigate and remove any individuals confirmed to be ineligible voters, while those who can provide proof of citizenship will remain on the rolls. Noncitizens who have voted unlawfully will be referred to the Texas Attorney General’s Office for criminal investigation.

“Everyone’s right to vote is sacred and must be protected,” Nelson continued. “We encourage counties to conduct rigorous investigations to determine if any voter is ineligible — just as they do with any other data set we provide.”

“The SAVE database has proven to be a critically important data set and one of many that we will continue to use in Texas to ensure that only qualified voters cast a ballot in our elections.”

According to the Secretary of State’s report, Harris County (home to Houston) contained the highest number of potential noncitizen voters — 362, followed by Dallas County with 277.

The discovery comes amid Texas’s continued crackdown on election fraud and illegal voting. In June, Nelson removed 33 voters from the rolls and referred the cases to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office for investigation.

Governor Greg Abbott praised the findings as further proof that Texas’s landmark Senate Bill 1, signed into law in 2021 to strengthen election integrity, is working exactly as intended.

“These reforms have led to the removal of over one million ineligible people from our voter rolls in the last three years, including noncitizens, deceased voters, and people who moved to another state,” Abbott said.

“The Secretary of State and county voter registrars have an ongoing legal requirement to review the voter rolls, remove ineligible voters, and refer any potential illegal voting to the Attorney General’s Office and local authorities for investigation and prosecution. Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated.”

Abbott added that Texas now leads the nation in election integrity, saying the state will continue to protect the ballot box from foreign interference and unlawful voting.

“We will continue to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote while also aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting,” Abbott said.

The revelations bolster President Donald J. Trump’s long-standing argument that voter rolls nationwide must be cleaned and verified to prevent noncitizens from influencing U.S. elections — a cornerstone of his administration’s Election Integrity Initiative.