House Freedom Caucus chairman introduces bill upping penalties for fraudulent votes cast by illegal immigrants

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs introduced legislation that would strengthen penalties on illegal immigrants convicted of casting fraudulent votes.

The bill, which the Arizona Republican introduced on Friday, less than three months before Election Day, seeks to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to make it an aggravated felony for illegal immigrants to cast fraudulent votes in federal elections.

Called the Voter Integrity Protection Act, the legislation would make casting a fraudulent vote a deportable offense, meaning that illegal immigrants who are convicted would be forced to leave the United States. The upgraded charge of aggravated felony would result in expedited deportation. The current punishment for illegal immigrants convicted of casting fraudulent votes is a fine and up to one year in prison.

"American citizens have a tremendous privilege to vote in free elections to decide the future of our constitutional republic. American citizens alone choose our political leaders, which is why I am introducing the Voter Integrity Protection Act," Biggs said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.

"Our elections have no room for fraudulent or fallacious voting, and illegal aliens who try to cast ballots to interfere in our nation's elections must be held accountable and punished. Our sacred privilege to vote should never be diluted by illegal aliens," he added.

The legislation was previously introduced in the Senate in 2012 by former Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, a Republican, but the bill failed to gain traction. At the time, Vitter estimated that there were tens of thousands of illegal votes cast by noncitizens.

"My bill injects some of that common sense and puts teeth into voter laws so we can uphold the integrity of American elections," Vitter said in 2012. "Of course we want immigrants to become voters once they become citizens, but our election system and our right to vote are being taken advantage of because of weak enforcement."

It is unclear how widespread the problem of illegal immigrant voting is in the U.S. In Florida, then-Gov. Rick Scott had the state compare drivers licenses information to voter rolls in 2012 to help spot discrepancies and identify noncitizen voters. The original investigation came up with a list of about 180,000 names, but a further review found just 85 registrations that needed to be revoked.

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law also found in a 2007 report that noncitizen voting was rare. The report revealed that most examples of noncitizen votes were cast accidentally.

"Although there are a few recorded examples in which noncitizens have apparently registered or voted, investigators have concluded that they were likely not aware that doing so was improper," the report stated.

Some municipalities in the U.S. have made it legal for noncitizens to vote in local elections, including San Francisco.