Texas House Republican introduces bill to prevent noncitizens from serving as election administrators

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, has introduced a measure to prevent noncitizens from serving as election administrators ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Named the “No Foreign Persons Administering Our Elections Act,” the measure, if successful, would prohibit state and local jurisdictions from hiring individuals who are not U.S. citizens, including illegal immigrants, to administer an election for federal positions.

“Foreign agents have no place overseeing our sacred democratic process,” Pfluger, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Fox News Digital.

“My legislation aims to ensure that only American citizens have the honor and responsibility of serving as election administrators,” he added. “No foreign influence should taint the integrity of our voting system.”

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Pluger’s bill comes after Kelly Wong, an immigrant from Hong Kong who is not a U.S. citizen, was appointed to serve on the San Francisco Elections Commission. Wong’s appointment to the position was made possible after San Francisco passed a measure in 2020 removing the citizenship requirement to serve on city boards, commissions and advisory bodies.

Wong, an immigrant rights advocate who came to the U.S. from Hong Kong in 2019 to pursue a graduate degree, was sworn in at a ceremony in San Francisco City Hall.

San Francisco Election Commission President Robin Stone recently told Fox News Digital, “I support the Board of Supervisors’ authority and decision to appoint Kelly Wong to the Elections Commission. What’s more, as public officers of the City, we respect the law and will of San Francisco voters, who removed the citizenship requirement for commissioners in 2020.”

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The Republican crackdown on the influence noncitizens may have on U.S. elections is an effort that Democrats have largely defeated in recent history.

Earlier this month, a move by Senate Republicans to stop noncitizens, including illegal immigrants, from being counted on the census for the purposes of apportionment for House seats and the Electoral College was shot down after the measure failed to gain the support of a single Democrat.

Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., moved to include an amendment, attached to the $460 billion spending package, that would require the Census Bureau to include a citizenship question in any future census, and then bar anyone who isn’t a U.S. citizen from being counted for purposes of congressional district and Electoral College apportionment.

While the bill would also exclude legal immigrants on temporary visas and green cards from the census, the move has been undertaken explicitly to stop illegal immigrants from being counted amid millions of new arrivals at the southern border. It’s similar to a Trump-era effort to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census. Trump’s effort sparked widespread criticism and condemnation from Democrats and left-wing immigration groups who argued that a citizenship question was unlawful and was designed to help Republicans in future elections.

Fox News’ Gabriel Hays and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.