Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),.
Florida authorities on Oct. 16 sued the U.S. government, alleging that U.S. officials are illegally refusing to cooperate with Florida’s effort to remove noncitizens from its voter rolls.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody speaks, in a file photograph. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
State law requires state authorities to maintain accurate voter registration records. Federal law requires the federal government to respond to inquiries from federal, state, and local government agencies that are “seeking to verify or ascertain the citizenship or immigration status of any individual within the jurisdiction of the agency.”
But when the Florida Department of State asked U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for data on individuals whom Florida authorities identified as potentially being noncitizens who are registered to vote, USCIS’s director wrote back and said the agency could not offer any information that is not contained within the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program.
Florida authorities have access to the program, but it is insufficient to check all possible noncitizens, according to the suit, because the program requires officials to have biographic information and an immigration identification number to check a person’s citizenship status.
“Without further information from [the Department