{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://vanduyne.house.gov/2024/12/rep-van-duyne-introduces-legislation-to-secure-our-elections-and-cities-from-illegal-immigrants", "Rep. Van Duyne Introduces Legislation to Secure our Elections and Cities from Illegal Immigrants", "2024-12-23", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "House", "TX", "Beth Van Duyne", "V000134", "vanduyne.house.gov", "vanduyne", "https://vanduyne.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne recently introduced the Voter Eligibility Verification Act and the No Congressional Funds for Sanctuary Cities Act to push back on Democrats\u2019 attempts to overwhelm our nation with mass illegal immigration.\n\n\u201cThe open border policies we\u2019ve seen for the last 3.5 years from Democrat leadership have made our nation less safe and our elections less secure,\u201d said Rep. Van Duyne. \u201cFrom sanctuary city mayors refusing to honor our nation\u2019s immigration laws, to Washington, D.C. bureaucrats unlawfully withholding citizenship data from states, Democrats\u2019 willful disregard is evident and those responsible must be held accountable.\u201d\n\nTheVoter Eligibility Verification Act requires U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to respond to state inquiries regarding citizenship data within 30 days of receiving the request.\n\n\u201cAfter Texas requested necessary data from USCIS to verify voter citizenship and clean the voter rolls, USCIS failed to respond, leaving Texas struggling to ensure only eligible voters could vote,\u201d said Rep. Van Duyne. \u201cThe Voter Eligibility Verification Act will fix this by requiring USCIS to respond to state requests for citizenship data within 30 days. I will continue working with state leaders to ensure they have the tools needed to protect our elections.\u201d\n\nThe No Congressional Funds for Sanctuary Cities Act would prohibit the use of Congressionally-appropriated community project funds from cities that have sanctuary city policies\u2014such as laws, ordinances, regulations, or practices that obstruct immigration enforcement or shield individuals from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).\n\n\u201cPresident Trump's deportation plan relies on cooperation from local law enforcement and sanctuary city policies compromise those efforts,\u201d said Rep. Van Duyne. \u201cMy proposal to withhold community project funds from sanctuary cities would pressure local governments to allow greater cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.\u201d\n\nCongresswoman Van Duyne was joined by Congressman Dan Crenshaw (TX-02) in introducing the Voter Eligibility Verification Act.\n\nBACKGROUND:\n\nRep. Van Duyne recently launched a new effort to deport criminal aliens from our communities by empowering our mayors and local law enforcement to work with ICE.\n\nThe No Congressional Funds for Sanctuary Cities Act will ensure that cities that refuse to cooperate with ICE to protect their citizens will be held accountable.\n\nAfter finding and removing 6,500 potential noncitizens from its voter rolls, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson requested citizenship data from USCIS to verify the eligibility of voters before the November 5th election. USCIS failed to comply with Texas\u2019 request.\n\nIn October 2024, Rep. Van Duyne joined her colleagues in demanding immediate action from USCIS to release the citizenship data so Texas could ensure eligible voters were allowed to cast a ballot.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://vanduyne.house.gov/2024/12/rep-van-duyne-introduces-legislation-to-secure-our-elections-and-cities-from-illegal-immigrants"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.289720181375742, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}