California-based U.S. officials announced Monday they have charged 28 green-card holders with fraudulent voter registration and other election-related crimes and arrested 11 of them in a coordinated effort “to combat and root out fraud in U.S. elections and protect electoral integrity.”
Four of the 28 charged in California are accused of registering to vote fraudulently while living in San Diego County and casting ballots in the 2024 election.
Two were arraigned in the Edward J. Schwartz Federal Courthouse in San Diego on Monday and the two others have warrants out for their arrest, a spokesman for the Southern District U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Green-card holders are lawful permanent residents with legal immigration status but are not U.S. citizens or permitted to vote in U.S. elections.
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inewsource first reported the existence and contents of five federal grand jury subpoenas sent to San Diego County voting officials and the existence of subpoenas sent to Imperial County.
Los Angeles County and Orange County also received subpoenas for voter records, according to reporting by the Los Angeles Times and CalMatters.
The subpoenas were revealed Monday to be part of a coordinated effort between all four California U.S. Attorney’s offices, the Justice Department and Homeland Security Investigations to prosecute voter fraud is called “Operation Protect the Vote.”
Northern California District U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian said that the charges were brought using information from subpoenas to California counties and the California secretary of state.
“Working with information provided by Homeland Security and comparing it to voter information that we subpoenaed from the California secretary of state, and from various counties within our individual districts, we were able to identify individuals who allegedly registered to vote and voted when they had no right to do so,” Missakian said. “This operation will remain in place through the election and beyond.”
Officials said they have charged 155 people with voting fraud-related offenses since the start of the Trump administration and 112 in 20 states in the last seven weeks. According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, 158 million people voted in 2024.
Asked about the charges, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said voter fraud is wrong and should be prosecuted but added, “There is the possibility and the reality of one-off, isolated incidents of voter fraud…. But 28 out of 23 million registered voters in California is, obviously, just a drop in the bucket numerically. It’s 0.0001 percent of all the registered voters.”
The charges were announced at a press conference Monday in Los Angeles with the four California U.S. attorneys and Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter.
In San Diego County, a 51-year-old citizen of the Philippines living in National City and a 56-year-old citizen of the Philippines living in Escondido faced charges in court Monday.
They were both charged with unlawful procurement of naturalization and false statements under oath and the 51-year-old man was also charged with false claim of citizenship to vote.
The 56-year-old woman told the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations agents who interviewed her on Thursday that she thought she was a U.S. citizen, according to the government’s complaint.
Her mother had told her that she and her two siblings were naturalized along with her — she found that she wasn’t in June when she went to renew her Social Security card, the court documents say.
Both people were released on bond without supervision for having what were called in court “strong ties to the community,” and having been “completely cooperative,” living in San Diego County for 30 and 40 years.
The government said the two others charged with actions related to voting in the November 2024 general election are a 31-year-old Canadian national living in San Diego and a 64-year-old citizen of Guatemala and former Oceanside resident living in Moreno Valley
The announcement of the charges and the resulting arraignments came days after the Trump administration filed a lawsuit against the state of California on Thursday for failing to meet a 48-hour deadline to review a list of 20,000 suspected noncitizen voters.
“Today’s arrests prove what we have been saying,” said Central California District First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “California is mailing ballots to noncitizens, and they are refusing to comply with federal law, which makes it a crime for noncitizens to vote. The voting rights of American citizens must be protected.”
McCotter said that the 28 people charged with felony crimes are on that list of 20,000 and that the Justice Department has asked a court for an emergency injunction to set any ballots cast by the 20,000 aside while their citizenship is checked.
“There may be some names on there who it turns out ultimately are citizens,” he said. “We’re not perfect.”
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