A California congressman is praising the Trump Justice Department for suing his state to try to block ballots from being counted from 20,000 suspected foreigners who made it onto California's voter rolls.

"It's very much needed, long time in coming," Rep. James Gallagher, R-Calif., told Just the News. "And you know, they gave California every opportunity to clean up their rolls. You know, they said, 'Look, take  illegal immigrants off of your rolls. We know that you have them. There's been a review of that. But you know, California continues to persist.

"I mean, do you want illegal immigrants who are not eligible to vote to be able to vote in your elections? I guess they do," he added.

Gallagher reacted Thursday night on the Just the News, No Noise television show after the DOJ sued California for alleged "state-facilitated voter fraud," seeking to block 20,000 people on the voter rolls suspected of being noncitizens.

The suit follows an investigation from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in which the agency reviewed voter registration data for possible foreigners who were illegally registered to vote.

“State-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “If found responsible in a court of law, the State of California will have seriously undermined confidence in our electoral system and violated laws that protect our nation’s representative system of government. The Department of Justice will continue working to uncover cases of voter fraud, hold fraudsters accountable, and restore trust in American elections.”

The DOJ specifically asked that the court bar California from tabulating mail-in ballots from likely noncitizens until the effective determination of that voters' citizenship status. You can read the suit here.

Filed US Complaint CA Voter List.pdf

California has discounted the Trump administration's claims.

“This is an emergency of the DOJ’s creation,” Secretary of State Shirley Wever wrote the DOJ this week. "California's election administration will continue to be governed by applicable federal and state law, not by unsubstantiated claims and outrageous demands.”

Gallagher said the suit could give additional impetus for a ballot initiative on November to impose voter photo ID in California.

"You know, this is a thing we've been fighting in California for a long time, we actually have the opportunity to change that on the ballot here in California. We have voter ID, Prop 39, and that will be the thing that will actually help clean this all up, along with this lawsuit that is going to bring huge leverage to make sure that we have clean elections in California."

Asked whether he though the proposition would pass in a liberal state, Gallagher answered: "I think it's going to pass. I mean you talk to people, and the polling's actually been really good. You know, most people agree, overwhelmingly they agree that you should have to show ID to vote."