As Republicans battle over passing the President Trump-supported SAVE America Act ahead of midterm elections, a case out of Alabama points to the reality of noncitizens voting in U.S. elections.
The SAVE America Act, or the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, has been passed three times in the House but has been hamstrung in the Senate, with some lawmakers saying they are being “held hostage [by] the inaction” of the upper chamber. The Save America Act would fight election fraud by requiring individuals to provide proof of U.S. citizenship while registering to vote in federal elections, which could include a birth certificate or passport. Proponents of the bill say it would mitigate heavy reliance on verification systems and databases that may allow some bad actors to slip through the cracks.
A case in Alabama has become an example some Republicans spotlight to show how, despite existing voting laws, some noncitizens have been able to participate in elections.
The battle played out in Alabama over several years when Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen identified 3,251 individuals in 2023 who were registered to vote in Alabama and had been issued noncitizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). At the time, Allen said he was repeatedly denied help from the Biden administration. He also noted at the time it was possible for some of the individuals to have become naturalized citizens who are eligible to vote, and said the Secretary of State’s Office would allow them to update their information and participate in the civil process.
His efforts to clean up the voter rolls were blocked in court during the Biden administration, but under President Donald Trump, Allen was able to have 186 noncitizens who were registered to vote removed from the state’s voter file in January 2026. Allen partnered with the federal government to gain access to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, which is a program used to identify noncitizens registered to vote in different states. That program was also blocked by a federal judge in June.
During the investigation, his office indicated that 25 of those 186 noncitizens not only registered, but also voted in elections. Allen’s office partnered with DHS, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama on an investigation and ultimately referred the case of 45-year-old Mexican noncitizen Homero Ramos to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
On June 5, 2026, Allen’s office announced that Homero had pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulent voting in Marion County, Alabama, after voting in both the 2022 and 2024 general elections.
“Earlier this year, my Office referred 25 noncitizens who illegally voted in Alabama elections to federal law enforcement authorities. A noncitizen residing in Marion County, who registered to vote prior to my election as Secretary of State, has pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulent voting,” Allen said last month in a statement. “My Office will continue our efforts to identify noncitizens illegally registered to vote and voting in our elections and I will refer them to law enforcement and ensure that they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I am thankful that President Trump shares my zero-tolerance policy for noncitizen voting and for his DOJ’s particular attention to election integrity.”
At the time, Allen did not disclose how Homero was able to register to vote in Alabama. Breitbart News reached out to his office but did not receive a request for comment by the time of publication.
The DOJ told Breitbart News on Tuesday that Ramos told authorities he went with two associates who said they could help him register to vote in Marion County. According to the agency, Ramos did not tell anyone at the voter registration location that he was not a U.S. citizen and simply showed them his Alabama driver’s license.
In Alabama, administrative code states that a driver’s license can be used as proof of citizenship if it “contains appropriate indicia showing proof of U.S. citizenship,” which in Alabama is a “Star” license or ID. During the registration process, an individual is also required to attest that they are, in fact, a U.S. citizen.
The DOJ pointed Breitbart News to a similar case out of Alabama involving a foreign national from Canada accused in January of voting in nine different state and federal elections, despite not being a U.S. citizen. At the time of the charges, 71-year-old Franc Neil Maloney was out on bond for an unrelated case involving 187 counts of child pornography and four counts of dissemination of child pornography, per local news reports.
Republicans contend the SAVE America Act would obliterate these kinds of cases by requiring proper proof of citizenship up front, rather than relying solely on verification systems and voter-roll clean-up efforts.
Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) told Breitbart News this month that election integrity remains a major concern among Republican voters, calling it “a core tenet” of why Republicans “won in 2024” and saying the issue comes up at “any Lincoln Reagan Day dinner in any county in America.” He added that House Republicans are moving to attach the SAVE America Act to the National Defense Authorization Act.
“This will be a top issue for any Republican that you talk to,” Moore said, adding that the concern spans “moderate to MAGA” Republicans who do not understand “why you can’t get this done.”
President Donald Trump passionately called again for passing the SAVE America Act during his Fourth of July speech to thousands of people in Washington, DC. He has previously called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to use the talking filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act, which Thune has not committed to. While the legislation has passed the House, it does not have the support to make the 60-vote threshold to bypass the filibuster in the Senate. A talking filibuster would force Democrats to debate the bill on the floor so that it would ultimately require only a simple majority to pass.
“All voters must provide a little thing called proof of citizenship. And there will be no mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military deployment, or travel. And you won’t have cheating on the elections anymore. It’s very simple,” Trump said on America’s 250th anniversary.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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