As the Supreme Court deliberates the legality of an overhauled immigration database that some states want to use to purge noncitizens from voter rolls ahead of the midterms, Texas is arguing that the system’s updates — which include citizens’ Social Security data — has been “transformational” for the state’s ability to administer elections.
After President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court to lift a lower court’s order that halted use of the modified Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, database, Texas filed a brief Tuesday arguing that its implementation has been essential for monitoring voter roll accuracy.
“By forcing the States to utilize an outdated and inefficient SAVE program, the district court’s order undermines Texas’ interest in maintaining accurate, up-to-date voter rolls — which in turn impedes Texas’ interest in ensuring voter confidence and administering an orderly election,” state leaders, including state Attorney General Ken Paxton, wrote in a filing with the high court.
The SAVE database, which spawned a tangled legal process, was originally intended to track the status of immigrants in the country but was revamped after Trump’s March 2025 executive order aimed at rooting out potential noncitizen voters.
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Expanding the database by adding personal data and new features prompted a lawsuit over concerns that the Social Security number search feature constituted a privacy violation — amid broader concerns that the database could have inaccuracies that would lead to American citizens being erroneously flagged as ineligible to vote.
Texas’ brief coincides with the arrests of seven people indicted for “illegal activity” related to the 2024 general election, Paxton announced on Tuesday. The Texas secretary of state’s office said that 117 out of 2,724 flagged potential noncitizen voters have been referred to Paxton’s office for further investigation, while 578 voters had demonstrated citizenship upon further review.
Travis County, home of Texas’ capital, Austin, filed an amicus brief on Tuesday, arguing the SAVE system was unreliable and risked purging American citizens ahead of the midterms. The county cited an existing state code that requires voters who have been flagged to provide proof of citizenship within 30 days or risk being removed from state voter rolls.
“Requiring voters who have already demonstrated citizenship to one state entity to prove citizenship again based on flawed SAVE data burdens not only Travis County but also Texas voters and may lead many to lose their right to vote,” lawyers representing the county wrote.
The state had flagged hundreds of noncitizens after using the modified database last fall — including 97 in Travis County, around a third of which were likely misflagged using an initial cross-check with Department of Public Safety data, the county wrote, meaning the true error rate could be even higher.
In its response to the county’s brief, Texas said the updates allowed election officials to “more efficiently, promptly, and economically ensure the accuracy of its voter rolls,” including by running its list of 18 million voters “in bulk and for no cost” — a process that previously would have been “cost-prohibitive.”
Texas sued DHS in October 2024 to compel it to comply with obligations to provide citizenship-verification assistance. Since the state first used the modified database in April 2025, the brief reads, Texas has become the database’s “most prolific” user in the U.S.
State officials argued that Travis County’s claim that SAVE led to inaccurate purgings was referencing a low number of “potential” noncitizens who were not automatically removed from the rolls.
“As DHS has explained, SAVE does not make citizenship determinations,” the state wrote.
Travis County officials also argued that lifting the lower court stay could run up against the National Voter Registration Act’s “quiet period” that mandates a 90-day limit on systematic purging before federal elections. The state’s registration deadline and early voting kick-off fall in early October.
Allowing usage of the updated database to resume would not only go against the tradition of avoiding last-minute changes to election rules, the county argued, but would also divert staff into verifying “demonstrably flawed” data — impacting counties that lack resources the most.
Texas has had a long history with erroneous purging concerns, including aggressive efforts from the Republican-majority state Legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott.
Voting rights groups sued the state in March over its removal of potential noncitizens from its voter rolls, alleging that officials had failed to actually check for proof of citizenship voters may have already provided. A February analysis from The Texas Tribune and ProPublica showed that DHS has had to correct information provided to at least five states after SAVE misidentified some voters as noncitizens.
“Travis County’s experience is not unique,” county officials wrote on Tuesday. “The Texas Director of Elections has admitted that SAVE provided ‘inaccurate information’ to counties and incorrectly flagged eligible voters as potential non-citizens. As a result, state officials have been forced to reach out to counties to immediately reinstate affected voters.”
The state has also passed several laws tightening voter registration and Election Day protocols over the past several years, leading to confusion from county election officials on how to best incorporate the new guidelines before major elections.
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