Federal officials have charged three Fresno County residents for illegally voting in elections despite not being citizens of the United States.
The three Fresno County residents were part of a group of 28 people who face similar charges across California.
The big picture: All 28 people facing federal charges are green card holders, meaning they have legal immigration status but are not allowed to vote in elections.
Zoom in: The three Fresno County residents who have been charged are Maricela Gonzalez, Rony Sicaja and Camino Jimenez.
Gonzalez, 43, is a Mexican national who lives in Clovis. She registered to vote in 2020 and indicated she was a citizen. She voted in 2022, 2024 and 2025.
Sicaja, 38, is a Guatemalan national who lives in Fresno. Sicaja fraudulently registered to vote in 2017 and voted in 2022 and 2024.
Jimenez, 51, is a Mexican national who lives in Kerman. Jimenez has voted in three elections, including the June primary.
They were all charged with voting by an alien in a federal election, which is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison.
State of play: The charges come after the U.S. Department of Justice requested California’s help in verifying the citizenship of more than 20,000 registered voters who have been mailed ballots.
California did not comply with the request, leading the federal government to file a lawsuit against the state.
What they’re saying: The Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters said it has been made aware of the charges but has not been contracted directly by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Fresno County said California requires people to attest that they are citizens when registering to vote and that state law requires counties to rely on that citizenship attestation as evidence of citizenship.
“If a registrant does not certify their citizenship status at the time of registration, the Registrar will not accept their registration application,” the county said in a statement.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen.
“Each of the 28 defendants charged today appears on the list of more than 20,000 likely noncitizen registrants we provided to California election officials last week,” McCotter said. “California refused to look at that list. Today’s charges show exactly what that refusal puts at risk. California must verify the citizenship of those more than 20,000 registrants before mail-in ballots are counted.”