House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, unveiled the long-awaited legislation to ban non-citizens voting in federal elections. He first teased this measure alongside former President Donald Trump almost a month earlier.

Johnson, Rep. Chip Roy, (R-TX), and other GOP legislators introduced the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, Wednesday. The bill seeks to amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1992 to require that individuals provide proof of citizenship prior to registering to vote. The bill was introduced after Johnson joined Trump at Mar-a-Lago to express concerns over election integrity in advance of the November elections.

Johnson stated that there is a present and clear danger to our electoral system. Johnson said that the threat posed by noncitizens or illegal aliens voting at our elections is a real one.

Johnson expressed concern that “potentially thousands of votes” would be cast by illegal immigrants in November, claiming that they don’t need to prove citizenship before voting under the current law.

The federal law mandates that voter registration forms require voters to swear, under penalty of perjury, that they are United States citizens. In order to verify an individual’s identity, election officials will also need proof of their driver’s licence or Social Security Number.

Some Republicans, however, have complained that the law doesn’t go far enough in requiring additional scrutiny to determine whether an individual is eligible to vote.

Roy stated, “We are here to support the simple proposition that is supported by the overwhelming majority of Americans that only citizens from the United States of America should be allowed to vote. We should have documented proof. We should have a method to ensure that only United States citizens vote in federal election, where the Constitution of the United States, our laws and the United States give us the authority to determine the terms for those elections.”

Some opponents have criticised the proposal, claiming that it is already illegal for citizens to vote in federal election. They consider this bill redundant.

There have been cases of noncitizens participating in federal elections. However, these are rare. In a fraud database maintained by the conservative Heritage Foundation, only 100 noncitizens voted between 2002 and 2020 out of a sample of over 1 billion ballots.

Such small numbers, even if they were not detected by the election officials, would have little impact on a presidential vote. Republicans claim that the threat has become more apparent due to the unprecedented surge in illegal immigration along the southern border during the Biden administration.

Johnson stated that “due to the wide open border that the Biden Administration has refused to shut — and that they actually engineered to be opened — we have so many noncitizens now in the country, that if just one out of every 100 voted, then they would cast hundreds, if not thousands, of votes,” he said.

It is not the first instance that Republicans have sought to change election laws in order to prevent noncitizens voting. GOP lawmakers have challenged local jurisdictions which allow noncitizens the right to vote in local election, especially in Washington D.C.

Johnson added: “It’s also true that an increasing number of localities blur the lines by allowing noncitizens to vote in local municipal elections.” “Democrats expressed a wish to convert non-citizens to voters.” This is what the open border policy has been about.”

The date of the vote in the House is not yet known. It’s possible that the legislation will face opposition in the Democratic-led Senate. This could give Republicans ammunition to attack their rivals on the campaign trail leading up to November.