Federal prosecutors charged 28 foreign nationals with election-related offenses as the Trump administration seeks to block more than 20,000 potentially ineligible California voters from having their mail-in ballots counted. State officials dispute claims of widespread voter fraud.<\/p>\n
LOS ANGELES (CN) \u2014 The Department of Justice announced Monday that 28 foreign nationals living in the United States have been charged with crimes related to voter fraud as part of the Trump administration\u2019s Operation Protect the Vote.<\/p>\n
The announcement comes just days after the administration filed a lawsuit<\/a> over California\u2019s mail-in voting system, which the DOJ claims contains more than 20,000 \u201clikely aliens\u201d on its voter rolls<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s charges demonstrate why that lawsuit\u2019s so important,\u201d Trent McCotter, acting U.S. deputy attorney general, said at a press conference in Los Angeles. \u201cI want to be very clear what the lawsuit\u2019s about. It\u2019s about preventing the voter fraud that cancels out the votes of U.S. citizens. Enforcing federal law increases the integrity of elections, and increases confidence in elections.\u201d<\/p>\n The DOJ filed an emergency motion for relief on Monday, asking the court for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to set aside the ballots of the voters it has flagged to confirm whether they are U.S. citizens, McCotter said.<\/p>\n DOJ attorneys took aim at Sacramento on Monday for choosing not to work with the federal government to root out election fraud.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the course of the summer, Department of Homeland Security and DOJ repeatedly tried to enlist the assistance of the state of California to ensure that their voter rolls are clean and include only U.S. citizens,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cWe asked California to work collaboratively in that process. We never heard anything back.\u201d<\/p>\n McCotter also accused the Los Angeles County elections office of refusing to work with the DOJ.<\/p>\n As of Monday, 11 of those charged in California<\/a> are in custody. Over the last seven weeks, DOJ officials said, 113 people have been charged with similar voting crimes in 20 different states.<\/p>\n By contrast, the Biden administration only charged 13 people with voter fraud over the course of its entire administration, the DOJ officials said.<\/p>\n All those arrested are permanent residents or green card holders legally allowed to remain in the United States but not permitted to vote. Despite this, the DOJ said many are accused of voting multiple times, including in the October 2026 primary election.<\/p>\n Some of those charged have been registered to vote going back more than 20 years \u2014\u00a0though not all of them are accused of casting a ballot.<\/p>\n The charges include a mix of misdemeanors and felonies, including making false statements in a naturalization application and fraudulent voter registration. Both of those latter charges carry a maximum of five years in prison.<\/p>\n Ten of the defendants are Mexican nationals, but others come from Guatemala, the Philippines and Canada. About half live in Los Angeles County.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s arrests prove what we have been saying,\u201d First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement. \u201cCalifornia 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The DOJ warned California in July that its voter rolls may include as many as 190,000 noncitizen voters<\/a>. The 20,000 figure refers to those the DOJ believes are most likely noncitizen registrants.<\/p>\n The DOJ said it corroborated publicly accessible data from the state\u2019s voter rolls with immigration data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to identify the likely noncitizens in California\u2019s mail-in voting system. The DOJ said it excluded naturalized citizens, deceased voters and voters with parent-based citizenship from the list.<\/p>\n California Secretary of State Shirley Weber previously expressed doubts about the claims and asked for the DOJ\u2019s methodology.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have now revealed the sourcing here and the methodology. We think it\u2019s pretty solid,\u201d McCotter told a reporter during the press conference. \u201cIf they wanted to cooperate, they have our number, and they know how to get in contact with all of us. There\u2019s clearly just no motivation on their part.\u201d<\/p>\n McCotter said the charges show what California risks by refusing to work with the DOJ.<\/p>\n \u201cCalifornia must verify the citizenship of those more than 20,000 registrants before mail-in ballots<\/a> are counted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In a statement to Courthouse News, the California Attorney General\u2019s Office said it takes voter fraud claims seriously. The state has safeguards in place to manage such cases, Walter Garcia, a spokesperson for the office, said.<\/p>\n