Office of the
Illinois Attorney General
Kwame Raoul

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul today joined a coalition of 18 attorneys general in opposing the Trump administration’s expansion of the Systematic Alien Verification for   Entitlements (SAVE) program to include sensitive information of U.S.-born citizens who have never interacted with the immigration system or consented to the use of their personal data. 

In a letter to the Trump administration, Raoul and the coalition argue the expansion of the SAVE program violates the Privacy Act of 1974, and the administration’s attempt to illegally share sensitive data exposes millions of individuals to the threat of data breaches and involuntary participation in a national surveillance database. 

“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.” 

SAVE is an online service administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to help state and local government agencies verify applicants’ immigration status before awarding funding and benefits, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid; licenses, such as driver’s licenses; or approving service in the armed forces. 

On Oct. 31, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a Systems of Record Notice (SORN) that expanded SAVE to allow access to all natural-born U.S. citizens’ personal information and to allow searches based on Social Security numbers, U.S. passport numbers and driver’s license numbers. 

In the letter, Raoul and the attorneys general urge DHS to rescind these changes and argue that adding multiple new data sources without checking for accuracy will increase the likelihood of inaccurate, stale or conflicting information, particularly related to immigration or citizenship status. Inaccurate verifications will require states like Illinois to engage in burdensome fact gathering to re-verify inaccurate SAVE responses. As a result, benefits could be delayed or denied, and individuals could inaccurately be flagged for investigation or erroneously removed from voter rolls. Illinois already spends significant time and resources to ensure that public benefits are provided only to individuals who qualify, including by having the required immigration status. 

Joining Raoul in sending the letter are the attorneys general of Colorado, California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont.