{"id":507322,"date":"2026-10-25T07:32:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T07:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/507322\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T07:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T07:32:17","slug":"california-leader-calls-attack-on-alleged-noncitizen-voting-weaponizing-the-law-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/507322\/","title":{"rendered":"California leader calls attack on alleged noncitizen voting \u2018weaponizing the law\u2019 | California"},"content":{"rendered":"

California\u2019s attorney general on Saturday rebuked the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to quash alleged noncitizen voting, calling it \u201cpoliticizing and weaponizing the law\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rob Bonta, the state\u2019s attorney general, said the justice department acted at Donald Trump\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is once again the United States Department of Justice politicizing and weaponizing the law to attack its enemies, and it is completely improper,\u201d he told MS Now.<\/p>\n

Less than two weeks before the midterms, federal prosecutors called upon California election officials to verify within 48 hours a list of about 20,000 ballots belonging to suspected noncitizens. Noncitizen voting is extremely rare<\/a>, but in the run-up to the midterm elections, the justice department has ramped up prosecutions of people accused of illegally voting while not holding US citizenship.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s election personnel have raised concern that the administration\u2019s directive could disenfranchise citizens. Los Angeles officials said this week a \u201chigh percentage\u201d of the individuals on the list were born in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s DOJ is so desperate to invent \u2018widespread voter fraud,\u2019 it sent California counties lists of people who NEVER voted \u2013 and voters from the WRONG COUNTY. Absolute clown show!\u201d California\u2019s governor Gavin Newsom posted on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoter intimidation has no place in our democracy,\u201d Pete Aguilar, a congressman representing south-west San Bernardino county, said in a social media post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The federal government\u2019s oversight attempts come amid a national Republican effort to crack down on alleged voter fraud, particularly any cases among undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are asking each county election official to commit to working with us by providing the necessary information for DHS to quickly verify citizenship status. With their help, we can ensure the most secure election in California history,\u201d the justice department said.<\/p>\n

Bonta, the California attorney general, has raised questions about the evidence behind the suspected noncitizen ballots.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll they provided was a list of people and nothing about why they\u2019re purportedly ineligible. If they have such information, we would be happy to review it, but they\u2019ve provided none,\u201d Bonta said at a recent press conference.<\/p>\n

The DoJ also charged 28 foreign nationals recently, accusing them of fraudulently registering to vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s arrests prove what we have been saying,\u201d Bill Essayli, first assistant US attorney, 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 defendants are lawful permanent residents, who have legal status in the US but are not citizens authorized to vote.<\/p>\n

Some state officials took no action on Friday\u2019s letters, citing the fast-approaching election, which spurred a legal battle with the justice department. An appeals court is set to hear the matter on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California\u2019s attorney general on Saturday rebuked the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to quash alleged noncitizen voting, calling it \u201cpoliticizing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-507322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}