Alabama’s Secretary of State is urging election boards to remove noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls.

Wes Allen was sworn in as Alabama’s 54th Secretary of State in January 2023. Since then, he has worked to ensure the Yellowhammer State has the cleanest and most accurate voter record in the country, according to his office.

The Secretary of State now announces that he has identified 3,251 people registered to vote in Alabama who have been assigned a non-citizen identification number by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

It is illegal for these types of residents to register to vote in the Yellowhammer State. A 1996 federal law makes it a crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.

Allen is now instructing the civil registrars in all 67 counties to immediately deactivate all persons who are not U.S. citizens and to take the necessary steps to deport them.

“I have made it clear that I will not tolerate non-citizen participation in our elections,” Allen said in a press release. “I even went so far as to testify before a U.S. Senate committee about the importance of this issue. We have examined the current voter record to identify every voter appearing on that list who has been issued a non-citizen identification number.”

Allen’s requests for the U.S. government to assist him in his efforts and provide him with a list of noncitizens currently living in Alabama have been denied. As a result, the Secretary of State is providing the Alabama Attorney General’s office with a list of registered voters who have been issued a noncitizen identification number, which could lead to further investigation and possibly criminal prosecution.

“This is not a one-time review of our voter file. We will continue to conduct such reviews to ensure that every voter registered in our file is eligible to vote,” Allen said in a press release. “I am confident that the federal government will change course in the near future and assist states in securing our elections.”

Allen said it was possible that some of the people who had been assigned a non-citizen identification number had since become naturalized citizens and were therefore eligible to vote.

The process, initiated by the Secretary of State’s office, allows naturalized citizens to update their information on an Alabama state voter registration form and, after verification, vote in the state’s elections.