Exclusive: The Trump Administration Is Building A National Citizenship Data System

For decades, voting officials have noted that there was no national citizenship list to compare their state lists to, so to verify citizenship for their voters, they either needed to ask people to provide a birth certificate or a passport — something that could disenfranchise millions — or use a complex patchwork of disparate data sources. Now, the Department of Homeland Security is offering another way: creating a searchable data system of citizenship records. Elections officials and privacy advocates are expressing concern.

This episode: White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram, voting correspondent Miles Parks, and power & influence reporter Jude Joffe-Block.

This podcast was produced by Bria Suggs and edited by Casey Morell. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy