Trump Pushes SAVE America Act as Cities Debate Noncitizen Voting

President Donald Trump has made noncitizen voting a central priority for the GOP through the SAVE America Act, which mandates proof of citizenship for voters. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned in July that local officials who fail to remove noncitizen voters from registration rolls could face prison time. Democrats have countered these federal efforts by citing data from ProPublica and the Heritage Foundation to argue that immigrant voter fraud is nearly nonexistent.

These federal actions coincide with a fragmented legal landscape across U.S. cities. In New York City, the New York Court of Appeals ruled in 2025 that Local Law 11, which allowed noncitizens to vote in municipal elections, was unconstitutional. The law had been sponsored by Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez in 2021 to provide political voice to documented noncitizens who pay taxes.

Conversely, noncitizen voting initiatives have remained active in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and several Vermont cities. In Montpelier, Burlington, and Winooski, such measures were upheld by the Vermont Supreme Court in 2023, with Montpelier City Clerk John Odum framing the practice as a statement of local morals.