| Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... |
Joanne O’Connor, Bridge2Blue
SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) is an online federal government database administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). State and local agencies that administer benefits use SAVE to verify that applicants have eligible immigration status for programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
The Trump Administration is expanding its use in concerning ways.
The administration has modified the database to run bulk, automated cross-checks against Social Security Administration (SSA) records to compile a nationwide master list of citizens and non-citizens. SAVE was not designed to be used to maintain voter files and is largely untested for that purpose. It cannot reliably verify whether a person is a U.S. citizen because it was never intended to do so.
On October 31, 2025, USCIS signed a new agreement giving other government agencies access to the SAVE system. The revised document confirmed new integration with the Social Security Administration’s databases, including citizenship fields and the Death Master File (which tracks reported deaths), allowing the SAVE system to match individuals through their last four digits or full Social Security Numbers (SSNs). According to the agreement, SAVE now stores and processes records not just for non-citizens, but for U.S. citizens as well.
If state and local agencies upload voter registration databases, drivers’ license information and other personally identifiable information for status verification into SAVE, under the agreement, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can share those uploaded sensitive records with law enforcement, immigration, intelligence, and other homeland security agencies.
Legal Challenges to SAVE Modifications
In September 2025, the League of Women Voters (LWV), the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a public interest research center, and multiple individual plaintiffs—concerned about voting rights and data privacy—filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the DHS, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Justice.
The League highlighted troubling evidence from Texas that roughly one-quarter of individuals flagged as potential non-citizens through SAVE were U.S. citizens — an early but compelling indication of the system’s false-positive rate. The suit also asserted that the consolidation of American’s personal data violates the Privacy Act of 1974.
On June 22, 2026, Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan granted summary judgment to plaintiffs, ruling that the SAVE overhaul and agreement violated the Privacy Act, the Social Security Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The court further ruled the database was modified illegally and ordered it be dismantled and reverted to its original design and purpose of verifying an applicant’s eligible immigration status for government benefits.
The government appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. On July 8, 2026, the district court denied the motion to stay the judgment pending appeal 2026. The appeal remains pending before the D.C. Circuit.
It is unclear whether the federal agencies have complied with the court’s ruling at this time, or when the Court of Appeals will hear the case.
Quiet Expansion of SAVE
Former Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed an Executive Order in September 12, 2025, one week before early voting began for the statewide election, directing Virginia to expand its use of DHS’s SAVE database to identify non-citizens and remove them from the rolls. Virginia is one of 28 states that uses the federal government’s SAVE system for voter list maintenance.
Youngkin’s directive aligned with Trump’s relentless demand that states share their voting files with the federal government, even though the Department of Justice (DOJ) has lost every lawsuit to date (0-19) attempting to force states to turn over voting files for the administration’s nefarious intentions, including building a national citizenship data system.
In effect, former Governor Youngkin appears to have given Trump exactly what he wanted.
Virginia Takes Steps To Mitigate Damage, But More is Needed
To address some of these issues, Viginia’s legislature passed House Bill 972, which the Governor signed in May. The law prohibits uploading voter files to SAVE for bulk or automated purges and clarifies that the system may only be used for individual, case-by-case citizenship verification.
Governor Spanberger also signed an Executive Order in March to rejoin the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), widely regarded as the most effective tool available to help election officials maintain accurate voter rolls and detect potential illegal voting. ERIC also helps states in reaching out to potentially eligible but not yet registered individuals with information on how to register to vote. While Virginia has taken some important initial steps, more work remains. Protecting every Virginian’s personal data and every citizen’s voting rights must remain top priorities.
As a voter, be sure to check your voting status to confirm you are still registered to vote.
