Foreign-Born Judge Sparkle Sooknanan Halts Federal Citizenship Checks For Voter Rolls

By: Breccan F. Thies | The Federalist

A foreign-born federal judge in D.C. ruled Monday that Americans are not allowed to check the citizenship of prospective voters because doing so might “purge voter rolls.”

D.C. District Court Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, who is from Trinidad and Tobago, blocked the Trump administration from using an updated database called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system in order to ensure that only American citizens vote in American elections.

Sooknanan became a U.S. citizen in 2009, but seemingly still retains citizenship in Trinidad and Tobago, which she said she would only renounce “if required by law.” As Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., pointed out, “If judges can stop Presidents, they should not also be citizens of foreign nations.”

The judge argued that because the database can sometimes have outdated information — for example, if someone obtained citizenship more recently than the last available information — the whole enterprise of making sure noncitizens cannot vote in American elections should be thrown out.

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