BREAKING: Biden White House lashes out against bill preventing illegal immigrants from voting in elections

On Monday, the Biden administration announced that it was "strongly opposed" to a bill proposed by the House GOP that would strictly enforce existing laws prohibiting illegal immigrants from voting in federal elections. The president's office suggested the bill was unnecessary, claiming it would instead make it harder for Americans to vote.

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act would, if passed, prevent anyone from casting a ballot in federal elections without proof of citizenship. It would also mandate that all states ensure there are no non-citizens on their voter rolls and punish election officials who register non-citizens with up to five years in prison.

"The Administration strongly opposes HR 8281," the office wrote in a statement. "It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections–it is a Federal crime punishable by prison and fines. The alleged justification for this bill is based on easily disproven falsehoods. Additionally, making a false claim of citizenship or unlawfully voting in an election is punishable by removal from the United States and a permanent bar to admission."

The statement went on to claim that states "already have effective safeguards in place to verify voters' eligibility and maintain the accuracy of voter rolls," and that the bill "would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but it would make it much harder for eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged from voter rolls."

Speaker Mike Johnson recently released a report revealing that in some states, a number of non-citizens had already been removed from voter rolls. In Virginia, for example, 1,481 were taken off the list last year. Over 20 percent of them had already cast a ballot in state elections over the past four years.

The House is set to vote on the SAVE Act this week, and Democrats have already made it clear that they will oppose it. 

This is a breaking story and will be updated.