(Radio Iowa) – The Trump Administration has signed a settlement granting state election officials free access to a federal immigration database for the next 20 years. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird says on the eve of the 2024 election, the Biden Administration denied the Iowa Secretary of State’s request to do a cross check to ensure non-citizens had not registered to vote. Bird sued the federal government for access to that information and discussed the lawsuit during a recent appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S. “We want to make sure that the system we have in place makes it easy for that kind of verification to happen, “Bird said, “so that we can make sure that if someone is a new U.S. citizen that they fully can enjoy their right to vote, but also that there is no illegal voting.”

Bird says it is clearly illegal under state and federal law for non-citizens to vote and this settlement will help Iowa safeguard the integrity of elections for years to come. “We want to know that when Election Day comes and the votes are counted that no illegal votes are mixed in with legal votes, cancelling a vote out, even if it’s just one,” Bird said “Elections come down to some pretty tight margins sometimes and we want Iowans to have faith in the outcome of their election.”

The settlement indicates that within 90 days the state of Iowa will have access to the federal immigration database — well before Iowa’s Primary Elections in June.