House Speaker Boris Johnson warns illegal immigrant vote could 'disrupt election' as House prepares to vote on spending bill

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, warns that “thousands” of people living in the United States illegally could change the course of the next US election.

Speaking to reporters at his weekly press conference Wednesday, Johnson noted that several House GOP members have won their elections by just a few hundred votes — or less, as in the case of Rep. Marianette Miller Meeks, R-Iowa, who won her first election by just six votes.

“If you have a small percentage of the millions and billions of illegal immigrants who have come across the border in the last four years under the policies of border czarina Kamala Harris, they can rig an election, they can rig the House majority,” Johnson said.

“This could have implications for the presidential race. This is a very, very serious matter.”

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House Speaker Mike Johnson has warned that the vote of illegal immigrants could affect the outcome of the US election. (Getty Images)

It comes hours before the House is set to vote on a measure extending federal funding for the current fiscal year for another six months to avoid a partial government shutdown on Oct. 1, as well as a bill to require proof of citizenship in the voter registration process.

That bill, the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, was ruled invalid by the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House, and President Biden has threatened to veto Johnson's government funding plan.

But Johnson nonetheless insisted that the House would “do the right thing” by moving forward with the vote, despite the fact that a significant number of Republicans already oppose the federal funding aspect of the legislation.

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is unlikely to take up Johnson's bill. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

“We will fund government responsibly and we will prevent non-citizens from voting in elections,” Mr Johnson said.

Opponents of the SAVE Act say it is based on xenophobia and is an unnecessary duplication of measures, given that it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections.

But Johnson and other Republicans have countered that years of progressive policies have made it easier for illegal immigrants to access voter registration forms, and they have touted the SAVE Act as a stronger security measure to prevent illegal voting.

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Johnson is holding a vote on his noncitizen voting and federal funding bill on Wednesday. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“It is against federal law for non-U.S. citizens to vote in U.S. elections. But we currently have no mechanism to ensure that in the states because they are not allowed to ask for proof of citizenship verification when someone registers to vote,” Johnson said.

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“Several states have already conducted audits. They have discovered that thousands of illegal immigrants are already registered to vote. This is a serious problem because some of our elections are decided by very thin margins, as everyone in this room and the entire press knows.”

Currently, 14 states and Washington, D.C. do not require any documents to vote at the polls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.