FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., is introducing a bill Tuesday that he says would plug a loophole in current federal law by making it a felony for illegal immigrants to vote in U.S. elections, aligning penalties with those for U.S. citizens unlawfully voting.
Currently, the prohibited acts under federal law for U.S. elections do not state that voting as an illegal immigrant is a prohibited act. Gaetz’s legislation would add voting as a noncitizen as a prohibited act and increase the penalty from a misdemeanor to a felony with up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
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Rep. Matt Gaetz heads to the House chamber on Capitol Hill on Feb. 6, 2024. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
“President Donald Trump is right: illegal aliens who vote in our elections should be in jail,” Gaetz told Fox News Digital in a statement. “It is unacceptable that illegal aliens get lighter sentences for defrauding our elections than U.S. citizens.”
“My legislation, the JAIL for Alien Voters Act, will create parity in punishment for those who commit voter fraud, regardless of immigration status. It’s common sense that U.S. citizens should be the only ones voting in U.S. elections,” he said.
Reps. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Mike Collins, R-Ga., Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., and Barry Moore, R-Ala., are cosponsors.
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Election officials and voters stand near an electronic ballot booth in Fairdale High School on Nov. 3, 2020, in Louisville, Kentucky. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
Earlier this month, in response to the Biden-Harris Justice Department suing Virginia over its removal of illegal immigrants from voter rolls, Gaetz introduced the “National Motor Voter Clarification Act.” This legislation aims to ensure that states can remove illegal immigrants from their voter rolls at any time.
Gaetz said these measures aim to safeguard U.S. elections from potential voting by the millions of illegal immigrants who entered through the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden-Harris administration.
A federal appeals court on Sunday ruled that a lower court was correct to re-instate some 1,600 Virginia voters who have questionable citizenship status to the rolls.
On Friday, U.S. Judge Patricia Giles issued a preliminary injunction to reinstate all voters who had been removed from state voter rolls in the past 90 days. The judge found that the removals had been “systematic,” not individualized, and were thus a violation of federal law.
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Her ruling came after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the State of Virginia, Virginia State Board of Elections and Virginia Commissioner of Elections on Oct. 11, saying that by removing voters from rolls too close to the Nov. 5 general election, the state had violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).
If the case is picked up by the Supreme Court, it would likely be in the days leading up to Election Day.
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.