Attorney General Kwame Raoul has joined a group of 18 attorneys general in objecting to the Trump administration’s decision to expand the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program. The expansion would include personal information of U.S.-born citizens who have not interacted with the immigration system or agreed to share their data.
In a letter addressed to the Trump administration, Raoul and his colleagues argue that this move violates the Privacy Act of 1974. They also express concern that sharing sensitive data could put millions at risk of data breaches and force them into a national surveillance database without their consent.
“I am urging the Department of Homeland security to help states protect all Americans’ private information by rescinding changes to SAVE that significantly increase the threat of bad actors accessing sensitive personal data,” Raoul said. “I will continue to collaborate with my colleagues to block any effort that compromises our residents’ personal information in order to build an illegal and immoral national surveillance database.”
The SAVE program is operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It assists state and local agencies in verifying applicants’ immigration status before granting benefits such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid, driver’s licenses, or military service approval.
On October 31, the Department of Homeland Security issued a Systems of Record Notice expanding SAVE’s scope. This change allows access to natural-born U.S. citizens’ personal details using Social Security numbers, passport numbers, and driver’s license numbers.
Raoul and other attorneys general are asking DHS to reverse these changes. They argue that adding new sources of data without proper checks may result in errors regarding individuals’ immigration or citizenship status. Such inaccuracies could require states like Illinois to spend more time confirming records, potentially delaying or denying benefits and wrongly flagging people for investigation or removal from voter rolls. Illinois already invests significant resources ensuring public benefits go only to those eligible under current laws.
Attorneys general from Colorado, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont joined Raoul in signing the letter.