Alabama officials sued for allegedly suppressing new citizens' voting rights

A coalition of voting rights groups on Friday sued the Alabama secretary of state and attorney general over a policy they say illegally targets naturalized citizens to keep them from voting in the upcoming November election.

The lawsuit alleges that a recent policy intended to remove noncitizens from Alabama's voter rolls "undermines the fundamental right to vote" by relying on faulty information that discriminates against naturalized citizens, disenfranchises eligible voters, and wrongly refers cases for criminal prosecution.

"Alabama is targeting its growing immigrant population through a voter purge intended to intimidate and disenfranchise naturalized citizens," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit centers on a policy initiated last month by Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, whose office began the process of removing 3,251 people from the state's voter rolls because they had previously been issued noncitizen identification numbers.

His office also referred the list of registered voters to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall for potential criminal prosecution on the grounds that federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in national elections.

"I have been clear that I will not tolerate the participation of noncitizens in our elections," Allen said in a statement announcing the purge of voters.

The lawsuit alleges that the purge of voters wrongly included naturalized citizens who were once issued noncitizen identification numbers before gaining their citizenship.

In announcing the policy last month, Secretary of State Allen acknowledged the possibility that some of the voters included in the purge may have since become citizens, and said that those voters could re-register to vote ahead of the election.

Plaintiffs alleged that the policy is "designed to target naturalized citizens for removal" and unfairly burdens eligible voters with re-registering to vote.

People born outside of the United States can become naturalized citizens by meeting requirements that include being a lawful permanent resident for five years or marrying a U.S. citizen, as well as demonstrating proficiency in English and passing a civics test. Famous naturalized citizens include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ryan Reynolds, and Melania Trump.

Roald Hazelhoff, a naturalized citizen who moved to the United States from the Netherlands in 1977, joined the lawsuit after he received notice that his voting registration had been inactivated following the purge. Despite attempting to fix his registration status, Hazelhoff is unsure if he will be able to vote in the upcoming election, the lawsuit said.

"It intimidates naturalized citizens and discourages them from voting by suggesting that by registering to vote, they are committing a crime and will be referred for criminal investigation," Kate Huddleston, senior legal counsel at Campaign Legal Center, told ABC News.

The plaintiffs asked a federal court in Alabama to issue an injunction to stop the policy because it violates the Constitution, the National Voter Registration Act, and the Voting Rights Act.

A spokesperson for the Alabama secretary of state, when asked for comment by ABC News, declined to comment on active litigation.

The lawsuit is being brought by a group of advocacy groups -- including the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, League of Women Voters of Alabama, and League of Women Voters of Alabama Education Fund -- as well as four individual plaintiffs who allege their voting rights have been threatened by the policy. The suit names Secretary of State Allen and Attorney General Marshall as defendants, as well as the chairs of the board of registrars in Elmore, Jefferson, Lee, and Marshall counties.

"We are committed to doing all that we can to ensure that every voter votes and that every vote is counted despite what obstacles are put in our path," said Benard Simelton, president of the Alabama NAACP.

The lawsuit comes amid a nationwide push by Republican lawmakers to tighten voting requirements ahead of the November election. Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that over one million ineligible voters had been removed from his state's voter rolls, including 6,500 noncitizens, while Tennessee officials in June asked over 14,000 residents to provide proof of their citizenship to remain on voter rolls.

Despite heightened concerns about illegal voting, research has suggested that actual instances of noncitizens voting are exceeding rare. A 2017 report prepared by the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice found that there were only around 30 incidents of noncitizen voting across the 23.5 million votes that were studied -- a rate of 0.0001%.

"Secretary Allen implemented the Purge Program as part of a nationwide, bad-faith effort falsely claiming that noncitizen voting is prevalent in American elections," the lawsuit said. "[E]vidence overwhelmingly shows that noncitizen voting is vanishingly rare in the United States and that voter purges aimed at alleged noncitizens primarily prevent eligible naturalized citizens from casting ballots."