The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) suspended expanded functions of the SAVE system to verify the citizenship of voters, after a federal judge ordered to stop a strategy implemented during President Donald Trump's administration to massively review election records.

According to information published by Democracy Docket, the measure represents a new setback for the policy promoted by Trump, which sought to use the SAVE immigration database to verify the citizenship status of millions of people registered on the United States electoral rolls.

Judge orders to reverse changes to the SAVE system

The ruling was issued last week by federal Judge Sparkle Sooknanan of the United States District Court, who instructed DHS to disable the modifications made to the Systematic Alien Verification for Benefits (SAVE) system.

Improvements allowed for mass searches using partial Social Security numbers, as well as integrating information from the Social Security Administration with visa, immigration, and naturalization records.

According to the plaintiffs' attorneys, the government confirmed that bulk upload tools and queries using Social Security numbers have already been disabled, so state election officials no longer have access to those features.

However, the DHS avoided publicly confirming whether the suspension responds directly to the order issued by the judge.

The program reviewed more than 67 million electoral records

Before the court ruling, the expanded SAVE system had been used to verify the citizenship of more than 67 million registered voters, primarily in states governed by the Republican Party.

Although the program identified thousands of people as potential non-citizens, subsequent reviews showed that a significant portion of those cases involved U.S. citizens with the right to vote, fueling criticism from voting rights organizations.

After learning of the court decision, activists expressed concern about the possibility that the administration would try to maintain part of the system's functions. However, according to the plaintiffs' legal representatives, the questioned tools have already been removed.

So far, DHS has not officially updated the SAVE website to report these changes, leaving uncertainty about the future of the program.

The decision represents a new chapter in the legal dispute over the scope of measures to verify the citizenship of registered voters and their possible impact on voting access in the United States.