Fox News raises false alarm about non-citizen voting

Fox host Laura Ingraham and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) discussed the SAVE Act’s alleged purpose of preventing the “very serious problem” of noncitizen voting. Ingraham said: “Illegal immigrants are pouring into the country – we’ve lost sight of this issue in recent weeks – but millions have come, and let’s say even a small, small percentage manage to vote – because they think they can, because they reasonably believe they are allowed to vote.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/10/24]

Host Sean Hannity claimed that in “states where you don’t need proof of citizenship to get a driver’s license,” you “will never have to ask for proof of citizenship” to register to vote.Former Trump adviser and frequent Fox guest Stephen Miller responded: “This is a conscious decision to allow illegal aliens to vote.” [Fox News, Hannity, 7/10/24]

Miller claimed that the Biden administration had “relocated” undocumented immigrants in “American cities and towns” in order to “interfere with the United States electoral process.” Miller further called it a “conspiracy” to “undermine the right of every American to vote while the Biden administration relentlessly fights against voter citizenship verification.” [Fox News, Life, Liberty & Levin, 7/7/24]

Fox News host Maria Bartiromo cited a debunked video which she said “revealed that 14 percent of illegal immigrants admitted to being registered to vote.” The video, released by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, was called by the New York Times “one of several misleading videos the Heritage Foundation has pumped into social media this year.” Despite the claims made in the video, the Times reported that “state investigators found no evidence that any of the seven people shown on the tape had ever registered to vote.” [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 8/4/24, Twitter/X, 7/31/24; Brennan Center for Justice, 9/10/24; The New York Times, 9/7/24]

Ingraham, Miller and Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich complained that Tim Walz had signed a bill extending driver’s license eligibility to illegal immigrants, claiming it was a campaign strategy to get more votes. Miller ranted: “When he talks about a legal path, he means accepting millions of illegal immigrants with full amnesty, full social benefits and free health care.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/6/24]

Hannity asked, “If you give illegal immigrants a legal driver’s license, like Walz gives illegal immigrants in Minnesota, the sanctuary state he loves so much, and if you get free health care and free college and you get a driver’s license, can’t you register to vote once you have a legal driver’s license?” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/7/24]

Fox News co-host Jeanine Pirro baselessly claimed that migrants are “standing in line to vote right now. They have a driver’s license that they can use to identify themselves to register to vote, and there are jurisdictions that actually want them to vote.” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/9/24]

Ingraham spread the rhetoric of the “great replacement theory,” claiming that the Biden administration would quickly naturalize immigrants in the hope that they would be “paid back” by new citizens who “ultimately vote Democrat.” When asked about the “real goal” of the Biden administration, guest Stephen Miller replied, “Maximum migration at maximum speed. Their hope is that massive unchecked immigration into this country will shift the balance to the left.” Miller then accused the Biden administration of naturalizing “criminal illegal aliens” and stated, “They want illegal aliens to vote.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/14/24; Media Matters, 9/11/24]

On his radio show Premiere, Hannity speculated whether if Democrats allowed undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver’s license in Minnesota, “they might also allow them to use that ID to register to vote.” He also asked: “Why shouldn’t one of the major political parties require proof of citizenship? Because everything else in life requires proof of citizenship.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 8/21/24]

Host Jesse Watters exaggerated the alleged danger of migrant voter turnout by pointing to announcements by Governors Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) and Greg Abbott (R-TX) that they had purged thousands of ineligible voters from the voter rolls in their states. He complained, “They always say it’s illegal, and it doesn’t happen. But now Virginia and Texas have found thousands of them.” In Virginia, Youngkin signed an executive order removing 6,303 noncitizens from the voter rolls, leaving open whether that number represented “noncitizens who actually voted or whether it was an error and later discovered they were citizens.” In Texas, Abott claimed to have removed 6,500 noncitizens. But as the Houston Chronicle noted, “Many of the governor’s 6,500 ‘potential noncitizens’ are most likely new U.S. citizens who did not confirm their new status with the county election office within 30 days.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 8/26/24; NBC News, 8/23/24; Houston Chronicle, 9/4/24]

Fox Business host Sean Duffy claimed without evidence: “There are reports of illegal voter registration and we are getting help from the federal government, state governments and NGOs.” Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, responded with “great replacement theory” rhetoric: “And if you’re wondering – people always say, ‘Why did Kamala Harris let 20 million illegals into the country?’ It’s about making that happen and getting them to vote. Remember, Sean, that Democrats in many parts of the country are pushing to allow non-citizens to actually participate in local elections and vote.” [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 9/1/24]

Miller declared that the “issue of illegal voting” was a “national crisis.” Miller claimed, “In all 50 states, illegal immigrants can vote by checking a box on a federal form that says, ‘I am a citizen.’ That certification is not verified in any way – not by an ID card, not by a naturalization certificate, not by a birth certificate, not by a passport, not by anything else. It is based on trust.” [Fox News, One Nation with Brian Kilmeade, 9/7/24]

After 198 Democrats voted against the SAVE Act, Alina Habba, a senior adviser to Trump’s campaign and guest on Fox News, said: “The Democrats can’t win legally, so they’re trying to turn the other cheek instead of enforcing the laws that require people to vote.” [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 9/8/24]

Outnumbered Co-host Emily Compagno suggested that undocumented immigrants would vote, saying, “And if you’re illegal, you’ll vote a million times, too.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 9/11/24]

After host Sandra Smith called the SAVE Act “pretty reasonable,” Fox News commentator Jason Chaffetz falsely invoked Texas and claimed there had been “thousands of cases” in which non-citizens had voted. In response to guest and former Democratic New York State Senator David Carlucci, who pointed out that non-citizen voting is extremely rare, and even the right-leaning Heritage Foundation has documented only 25 cases of prosecution for voter fraud over the past 20 years, Chaffetz pointed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) controversial removal of alleged non-citizens from the voter rolls. Abbott provided no evidence that the alleged non-citizens voted. [Fox News, America Reports, 9/12/24; CNN, 9/12/24; Houston Chronicle, 8/26/24]