Immigrant rights group seeks to block use of federal databases it says could purge legal voters

An immigrant rights group in Los Angeles sued the Trump administration Wednesday to block the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from using federal databases that it alleged are being used to target naturalized citizens who are eligible to vote. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington on behalf of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, alleges that DHS and the U.S. Justice Department are interfering with fair elections by using inaccurate federal databases in an attempt to buttress allegations of voter fraud.

"The federal government is engaging in an 'attack on the freedom to vote,'" Angelica Salas, the coalition's executive director, said at a downtown Los Angeles news conference. "This is voter intimidation."

The lawsuit — filed on behalf of the coalition by the UCLA Voting Rights Project — becomes part of a swirl of legal moves that states, including California, have taken to fend off federal actions that threaten to create confusion during the midterms.

"It's not an accident the federal government is trying to interfere with the right to vote. ... They believe they can intimidate naturalized U.S. citizens," said Xavier Becerra, the Democratic nominee for California governor who is acting as a senior adviser to the voting project.

The lawsuit alleges that the administration might be comparing voter rolls with undisclosed government databases. Those systems can include outdated information and be riddled with errors, it said, and could produce inaccurate results that disproportionately affect naturalized voters.

"Comparing government databases to try and arrive at a list of noncitizen registrants has been shown to result in erroneous data," the lawsuit said. "Congress has never authorized such activities and in fact has ... prohibited invasion of voter privacy through government data matches in this way."

This legal action is part of broader efforts by states, including California, to counter federal actions that could create confusion during the midterm elections.