Padilla’s Voter Inclusion Bill Sparks Senate Showdown
The INVITE Act aims to boost naturalized citizen voting, but GOP opposition and a rival bill threaten voter purges, while ICE’s masked arrests and new border tech stir further controversy.
WASHINGTON — On the anniversary of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), immigration policy, civil liberties, and border enforcement converged in the U.S. Senate, where competing visions of national security and civic inclusion were laid bare.
Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) introduced on May 20th the Including New Voters In The Electorate (INVITE) Act, a bill aimed at closing the voter registration gap among naturalized citizens by designating U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) field offices as official voter registration agencies. The bill would require USCIS to assist new citizens with registration during naturalization ceremonies.
“Our democracy works best when as many eligible people participate,” Padilla said. “Giving new citizens the tools they need to vote should be the bare minimum.”
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Naturalized citizens vote at lower rates than their native-born counterparts. In 2022, only 61% of naturalized Americans were registered, compared to 70% of native-born citizens.
But Padilla’s attempt to pass the legislation by unanimous consent was blocked by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), who instead championed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act—a bill critics warn would lead to voter purges and heightened barriers for new citizens. Padilla accused Republicans of spreading baseless claims about noncitizen voting to justify voter suppression.
While voting access remained under dispute, Democratic Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia issued a letter on May 23rd demanding answers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over the agency’s controversial use of masked and unidentifiable officers during immigration arrests.
“Across the country and in Virginia, masked ICE officers and agents without clearly visible identification have been arresting individuals on the streets and in sensitive locations, such as courthouses,” the senators wrote. “Such actions put everyone at risk—the targeted individuals, the ICE officers and agents, and bystanders who may misunderstand what is happening and may attempt to intervene.”
The letter cited incidents in which ICE agents failed to clearly identify themselves, causing confusion and potentially dangerous confrontations. In one March 5 case, a U.S. citizen in Virginia was wrongfully detained by ICE. In another, Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a Maryland father living under protected status—was deported without due process.
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The senators demanded that DHS turn over by June 6 all internal documents and guidance related to the use of face coverings, uniforms, and identification in enforcement actions. They warned that ICE’s current practices not only intimidate the public but have also enabled criminals to impersonate federal agents in order to commit extortion, assault, and even kidnapping.
“The uptick in ICE officers and agents concealing their identities… blurs the public’s understanding of what ICE officers look like and do,” they wrote. “Bad actors have and will continue to take advantage of ICE’s lack of transparency to perpetrate crimes on the most vulnerable in our society.”
As Democrats pushed for greater oversight and transparency, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced legislation on May 25th aimed at expanding border security through cutting-edge surveillance and enforcement technology. The Emerging Innovative Border Technologies Act would make U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Innovation Teams permanent, empowering them to develop and deploy new tech tools to monitor and secure the southern border.
“President Trump secured the southern border in his first 30 days. Let’s secure the border forever by using new technology,” Cassidy said. “Let’s stop fentanyl from flowing into our country.”
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The bipartisan bill—cosponsored by Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and mirrored in the House by Representatives Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) and Lou Correa (D-CA)—requires DHS to create operational standards for these innovation teams, evaluate old technologies for decommissioning, and report findings to Congress.
Supporters argue that modern tools are essential to fighting drug and human trafficking. Critics, however, caution that border technology has historically enabled over-surveillance and privacy violations—especially when paired with ICE's lack of transparency on the ground.
As Padilla calls for empowering new citizens, Warner and Kaine demand accountability from enforcement agencies, and Cassidy pushes to institutionalize high-tech border policing, the Senate is drawing stark lines around what immigration enforcement and civic participation should look like in post-Trump America.
Whether these visions can coexist—or are destined to collide—will shape the coming debates over who gets to participate in democracy, and at what cost.