Why the Upcoming Deportations Will Increase American Confidence in Elections

Editor’s Note: This column was co-authored by Anna Pingel.

For those of us who work in the field of election integrity, it is our primary goal to ensure that Americans can trust their elections. States are responsible for safeguarding the votes of their own citizen residents and promoting trust that the votes are counted as cast. All Americans need to know that their fundamental right to vote is respected and that is exactly why we work tirelessly to make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat.

It is concerning that for the past few decades, many Americans on both sides of the aisle have expressed a low level of confidence in the American election system, with reactions to election results often wavering between vague suspicion and utter contempt, largely due to issues with elections administration, deficiencies in voting technology, concerns of ballot access and accountability, and evidence of foreign intervention. While we have stood behind numerous commonsense policies that enhance American confidence in elections and are broadly supported across the aisle, such as requiring voter ID and prohibiting private funding of elections administration, we are additionally glad of an upcoming change that will greatly increase election security: deportation of illegal aliens residing across the United States.

The incoming administration has made it clear that deportations will begin immediately. While many pundits and politicians on the left decry this, they fail to recognize the beneficial impact these deportations will have on increasing American confidence in elections. The risk of non-citizen voting is real. Historically, we have seen multiple instances of non-citizen voting—including, for example, the instance of a Chinese student living in Michigan who cast his illegal ballot this past election cycle. That ballot was counted, negating the voice of a legal Michigan resident and prioritizing the voice of a Chinese non-citizen instead. 

To those minimizing this issue, we ask: how much fraud is acceptable? How many American citizens’ voices must be negated before you find it to be a problem?

Here are a few facts. During the 2024 election, multiple thousands of non-citizens were present on state voter rolls across the country. In the past four years, at least 13 million illegal immigrants have entered the United States, coming from every country in the world, per U.S. Customs and Border Protection. We know that several states conducted investigations and each state doing so found non-citizens present on the voter rolls. We also know that the Biden administration sued Virginia to prevent the removal of these non-citizens. Additionally, we know that many states participate in Automatic Voter Registration, in which anyone applying for a driver’s license is automatically put on the voter roll (Michigan, incidentally, is one of those states). Non-citizens are often eligible for driver’s licenses, and in some instances, such as in Minnesota, the state actively advertises this fact, including illegal aliens in the group of people eligible. How is this compilation of facts not vastly concerning to every American who cares at all about election security?

The solution to this problem is multifaceted. Of course states should check to see if their voter rolls contain non-citizens, in coordination with federal government agencies. Of course Automatic Voter Registration should be prohibited. Of course proof of citizenship should be required when registering to vote, not simply a self-affirmation of citizenship status. But the reality is that many states will not take these simple measures to secure their elections. New Jersey, for example, just last year failed to pass a bill that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. 

Therefore, the new administration’s prioritization of deportations is an excellent first step in the necessary improvements of election security. Where states fail to respect their own legal voters, this new administration will fill the gap when constitutionally possible. According to a 2024 Rasmussen poll, 80 percent of Americans agree that illegal aliens should not have the right to vote. Removing a large number of illegal aliens from the country ensures that they absolutely cannot do so. The upcoming deportations align with the will of the American people and uphold this election’s clear mandate, improving election security in the process. And when American election security improves, so will American confidence in elections.

The Hon. J. Kenneth Blackwell is the Chair of the Center for Election Integrity at the America First Policy Institute and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

Anna Pingel is the Policy Director of the Center for Election Integrity at the America First Policy Institute.

This post was originally published on here