Wes Allen is sounding the alarm about federal policies enacted by President Biden that he says provide illegal immigrants and non-citizens a “mechanism” to register to vote.
In a recent interview with Fox News Digital, Allen pointed to Executive Order 14019, which was issued in 2021, arguing the Biden administration’s broad interpretation of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 “weaponizes and mobilizes the entire federal government apparatus to become voter registration agencies.”
The secretary said his office first began looking into the matter after receiving a complaint from a concerned voter who received a voter registration form in the mail from an Alabama state agency addressed to a deceased relative who had passed away two years ago. Investigating further, Allen said his office discovered that state agencies, including Medicaid and other welfare offices that receive funding from the federal government, are required to provide voter registration forms to anyone who comes into contact with that agency under the NVRA.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen testifies during a hearing before the Senate Rules and Administration Committee in Washington, D.C., on March 12. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
These individuals receive information on voter registration regardless of whether they are ultimately approved to receive the public benefits they applied for, he said.
“And that’s why it’s so vitally important that the federal government, Congress, reform the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and then allow the states to conduct their own voter registration, take it out of the hands of the federal government,” Allen said. “It’s through state agencies that are federally funded and, of course, mandated by federal law, which is the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. And it doesn’t matter how they come in contact through the mail or through in-person or through online, if they are applying for these public benefits, if they come in contact with that agency, they are receiving the voter registration form. And that’s very, very troubling that non-citizens, whether legal or illegal immigrants, are receiving those voter registration forms.”