Lying liars who lie are being deceptive about non-citizens and our democracy

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi lied about President Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election and now she is spreading lies about the presidential balloting that has not even started and trying to interfere with the orderly conduct of American democracy.

“It is already against federal law for non-citizens to vote,” said Pam Bondi, chair of the America First Policy Institute’s (AFPI) Center for Litigation. Despite the fact that non-citizens are prohibited from voting, AFPI is threatening to waste taxpayer money to prove that registered voters are legally entitled to the franchise.

“These states should have no problem providing information about the steps they are taking to uphold and enforce federal law,” said Bondi, after her group of neo-fascist cult members sent letters to the chief elections officers of nine states threatening a lawsuit

A Republican, who served as the 37th Florida attorney general from 2011 to 2019, in 2020, Bondi was one of Trump’s defense lawyers during his first impeachment trial.

One of the central players in Trump’s effort to sow doubt in the American election system, Bondi used to be Florida’s top law enforcement official and now she is one of the few schemers who is not under indictment for election fraud in connection with the 2020 race.

The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) announced that it recently sent letters to the Chief Elections Officers of nine states with some of the largest illegal alien population demanding they uphold their constitutional duty by ensuring that only American citizens are eligible to vote in elections.

AFPI’s effort coincides with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act that Congressman Chip Roy introduced on April 12. The SAVE Act would amend the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 to require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

The NVRA, known as the “Motor Voter” law, established a variety of mechanisms to make it easier for Americans to register to vote, increase voter participation, and protect the integrity of the electoral process.

The NVRA establishes certain voter registration provisions and requires applicants to sign under penalty of perjury that they meet eligibility requirements, including citizenship. Courts have struck down state efforts to require documentary proof of citizenship that imposed hardships on certain individuals.

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision after the League of Women Voters challenged a Kansas law, but invited the state to make “a factual showing that substantial numbers of noncitizens have successfully registered to vote under the NVRA’s attestation requirement.”

The state failed to make that showing, so the court concluded that its documentary proof of citizenship requirement was unnecessary and, therefore, preempted. The case was remanded to the district court, which recently extended the discovery period to allow Kansas an opportunity to make the required factual showing.

“This issue should be straightforward – the federal government should be doing everything in its power to ensure that only US citizens vote in federal elections. This is their constitutional duty. Yet, the actions of the Biden Administration paint a different story,” said Chad Wolf, an architect of the Trump administration family separation policy in 2018, former acting Homeland Security Secretary and Executive Director of the America First Policy Institute.

“The American people deserve to know that states will take all necessary steps to ensure only American citizens exercise our sacred right to vote,” said Wolf, who worked as a staffer for Republican Senators Phil Gramm, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Chuck Hagel, before joining the Bush-era Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Wolf sent an email listing “family separation” of migrants as an option and lied to Congress saying that he was uninvolved in the policy.

When Sen. Jacky Rosen asked Wolf if he helped develop the family separation policy, he replied, “No ma’am. We were given direction both through an executive order and the attorney general’s zero tolerance policy at the time. The discussions that were underway at the Department at that time were operational.”

A government accountability group, Restore Public Trust, asked the Senate to refer Wolf for investigation by the Justice Department over claims that Trump’s pick for acting Homeland Security Secretary “provided false testimony” when he claimed he did not help develop the policy that resulted in over 2,800 migrant children being separated from their parents in 2018.

AFPI falsely asserted that since January 2021, the Biden administration’s “willful negligence at the border has allowed an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants into our country. “

The U.S. southern border has witnessed a record of at least 6.3 million migrant encounters at and between ports of entry since Biden took office in January 2021, but according to data from the Office of Homeland Security Statistics, this resulted in about 2.4 million migrants allowed into the country.

Republicans in Congress rejected the chance to enact virtually their entire immigration policy, which would allow Biden to shut down the border if too many migrants showed up but Trump and others feared that the Democrat would get credit if empowered to fix the problem.

There is a concerning trend of far-right extremist organizations that are spreading anti-democratic misinformation. These groups are financially supported by ultra-conservative megadonors who prioritize their own interests over the greater good of our democracy. This poses a serious threat to our civil rights, liberties, and the very fabric of our society.

That is why it is disconcerting that AFPI makes such deliberately false and misleading claims.

For example, the group said, “In March 2021, the President issued Executive Order 14019 directing federal agencies to register voters, including through multilingual means, without requiring those registering to prove U.S. citizenship.” That is utter nonsense.

Nothing in Biden’s order would release voters from proving U.S. citizenship as required by NVRA or a 1996 law prohibiting noncitizens from voting in federal elections, including elections for the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and presidential elections.

The group also said, “These actions, along with similar initiatives by liberal governors, combine to create the distinct likelihood that illegal immigrants will be registered and could show up to vote on Election Day.”

Only by assuming that Americans are predisposed to violate the law would let someone predict a “distinct likelihood that illegal immigrants will be registered” but since the Trump cultists have demonstrated such a disposition, we can see that they are projecting.

In furtherance of their cause, AFPI cites the court decision in Mi Familia Vota v. Fontes et al, which struck down several key provisions of Arizona laws preventing eligible, naturalized voters in communities of color from registering to vote.

They also make overly broad conjecture and raise silly contentions that overlook smart and reasonable provisions that have been propertly implemented in law.

“There are already a number of municipalities and a dozen states which could allow non-citizens to vote in state/local elections,” said Hogan Gidley, Vice-Chair of AFPI’s Center for Election Integrity. “Our mission is simple, make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. Illegal voting by non-citizens would be cheating. So, what are these states’ plans to stop it?”

The AFPR does not plan to make it easy to vote but they appear to be the ones who are cheating. The inklng of truth they latch onto is far less sinister than they make it sound, and it hardly constitutes a grave threat to our nation.

In 2022, voters in one California city approved a charter amendment that authorized voting for the Oakland School Board by noncitizen residents, who are the parents, legal guardians, or legally recognized caregivers of a child. The amendment was approved with 67% support. People who live there and have kids in public education may participate in school elections, even if they lack US citizenship. Scary.

Perhaps legally and logically opening up the democratic process to individuals who are excluded from participation in federal elections is less scary than cozying up to the prospect of a dictatorship run by criminals, but fear is a compelling tool in the hands of evil demagogues.

The District of Columbia Council in October 2022, allowed noncitizens to vote in local elections, the legislation overcame bipartisan opposition in the U.S. House of Representatives and passed its congressional review in March 2023. On March 20, 2024 the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to prevent the law from being enforced.

Two Vermont cities and 11 Maryland towns also allow noncitizens to vote in local elections. The AFPI election deniers and insurrectionists would like you to panic and act irrationally in response to this but America is far from being overrun by malign foreign influence.

While 89% of Americans support letting only citizens vote in our elections, these cases only apply to local elections in which legal residents are afforded limited opportunities to participate in elections for school board and municipal government. .

AFPI falsely accuses these states of having “rogue election officials” and insinuates that they failed to do their job without showing that ineligible people are able to vote.

AFPI is comprised of Trump allies who submitted false electors and incited a riot at the Capitol to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.

They do not give a damn about election integrity, but they are willing to lie, cheat and steal in order to secure power.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office is expected to prosecute the alleged scheme to submit a certificate falsely claiming Trump won that state’s 2020 election, while 11 false Republican electors and seven other Trump allies, including Mark Meadows, a former White House chief of staff; and Rudy Giuliani, who was Trump’s personal lawyer, were indicted in Arizona.

In July, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged 16 Republicans, who signed a certificate falsely stating that Donald Trump won Michigan’s 2020 presidential election, with eight felonies each, including conspiracy to commit forgery, which would carry a penalty of up to 14 years behind bars.

Nessel’s investigation is ongoing. Kahla Crino, an assistant Michigan attorney general, described the effort to submit false certificates claiming Trump won the 2020 presidential election as a “multi-state criminal conspiracy that was absolutely linked” to the Republican’s campaign.

Trump is personally facing charges linked to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election at the federal level, brought by special counsel Jack Smith, and in Georgia, brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

The unmitigated gall of election cheaters crying about the integrity of our balloting process should inspire outrage among Americans but it seems that more than a third of US citizens are falling for the pack of lies Trump;s cult is spreading around.