A federal judge’s decision to halt a sweeping Trump administration effort to remove suspected noncitizens from voter rolls has triggered a wave of nativist attacks from prominent Republican lawmakers and tech billionaire Elon Musk.
The backlash has zeroed in not on the legal reasoning behind the ruling but on the judge’s birthplace. U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan, a Biden appointee, was born in Trinidad and Tobago, and that fact alone became the flashpoint for a coordinated campaign questioning her fitness to serve on the federal bench.
The attacks, amplified across social media by elected officials and influential conservative voices, reflect a broader pattern in which the Republican Party has increasingly leaned into nativist politics as a central organizing principle.
The Ruling That Sparked the Backlash
In a 75-page opinion issued Monday, Judge Sooknanan blocked the Trump administration’s plan to expand the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system, known as SAVE.
The executive order behind the scheme directed DHS to use Social Security Administration data to overhaul the SAVE database into a citizenship-checking tool, which would then be made available to state and local election officials for purging suspected noncitizens from voter registration rolls. Sooknanan ruled that the federal government had knowingly violated the privacy rights of American citizens in a way that threatened the right to vote.
Her opinion was a direct rejection of one of the Trump administration’s most aggressive attempts to reshape how elections are administered nationwide.
Lawmakers Question Judge’s National Loyalty
Rather than engaging with the substance of Sooknanan’s ruling, several congressional Republicans turned to personal attacks rooted in her country of origin. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina posted on X that no one born outside the United States should hold a government position, explicitly including judges in that statement.
Her post featured a photo of Sooknanan, with text printed over a Trinidadian flag, describing her as a “foreign-born judge” blocking efforts to secure American elections. Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, in a separate interview with a conservative commentator, called for legislation banning foreign-born citizens from serving as federal judges or members of Congress, claiming the Founding Fathers never intended people from “hostile nations” to lead the country.
Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri also weighed in, questioning whether judges who have the power to overrule presidents should simultaneously hold citizenship in other countries.
During her Senate confirmation process, Sooknanan addressed the dual citizenship question directly in writing. She stated that in connection with her federal employment, she had pledged to take all necessary steps to renounce her Trinidad and Tobago citizenship if required by law to fulfill her duties. The Senate confirmed her to the D.C. District Court in 2024 on a party-line vote of 50 to 48.
Musk Joins the Pile-On
Elon Musk amplified the attacks by quote-tweeting a far-right commentator who made false claims about immigrants being encouraged to vote. Musk wrote that the country had not only imported voters but had also imported judges, a framing that echoed the nativist language circulating among Republican officials.
The irony was not lost on observers: Musk himself is a South African immigrant who spent $291 million to influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. His post received wide circulation and added fuel to calls for requiring federal judges to be natural-born citizens.
Those calls are not entirely new. Earlier this year, Rep. Pete Stauber of Minnesota introduced legislation mandating natural-born citizenship as a prerequisite for serving as a federal judge. The bill has not advanced, but the renewed attacks on Sooknanan have given the proposal fresh political oxygen among conservatives who are increasingly hostile toward the federal judiciary.
A Party Shifting Toward Nativism
The targeting of Judge Sooknanan fits within a much larger ideological shift inside the Republican Party. Since Trump’s return to political prominence, the GOP has not only intensified its focus on undocumented immigration but has also pushed to restrict legal immigration pathways, including refugee visas.
Trump’s second administration has pursued an aggressive deportation agenda and attempted to end birthright citizenship, a right guaranteed under the 14th Amendment, a move that was blocked in court.
The attacks on a sitting federal judge based solely on her national origin represent a significant escalation, one that critics say normalizes the idea that immigrants, regardless of their legal status or professional credentials, cannot be trusted in positions of authority.
The offices of Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson did not respond to requests for comment, and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia similarly did not issue an immediate statement.
