DOJ accuses 28 foreign nationals of allegedly voting illegally in California; 11 arrested
The Department of Justice reported that those detained are legal permanent residents who allegedly registered to vote and, in several cases, cast ballots in federal elections.
Federal authorities arrested 11 foreign nationals residing in California on Monday, among a total of 28 people charged with alleged election crimes, including fraudulent voter registration and casting illegal ballots in U.S. elections. The information was confirmed by the Department of Justice.
The arrests are part of Operation Protect the Vote, a coordinated initiative among California's four U.S. Attorney's Offices to combat election fraud and protect the integrity of elections.
According to the Department of Justice, the 28 defendants are legal permanent residents, known as green card holders. Although they have legal immigration status in the United States, they are not U.S. citizens and cannot vote in federal elections.
The charges include making false statements on naturalization applications and, in some cases, fraudulent voter registration. The Department of Justice stated that both offenses carry maximum penalties of five years in federal prison.
The charges against the defendants
According to court documents cited by the Department of Justice, the defendants allegedly declared under oath that they were U.S. citizens in order to register as voters in California. Their applications were approved, and in several cases, they allegedly voted in recent U.S. elections.
Subsequently, some allegedly submitted false information in their naturalization applications by stating that they had never claimed to be U.S. citizens nor had they registered to vote or participated in elections.
The cases are distributed among the Central, Eastern, Northern, and Southern Districts of California. The charges include various offenses, among them voting as a foreign national, attempting to obtain naturalization in violation of the law, and making false statements regarding citizenship.
The 11 detainees were initially scheduled to appear in federal court on Monday. The Department of Justice noted that no guilty pleas would be entered during those appearances.
Dispute between the federal government and California
The state government refused to cooperate with this measure, prompting a federal lawsuit seeking a court order to prevent the counting of allegedly illegal votes.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter stated that every illegal vote nullifies the vote of a U.S. citizen and argued that the 28 defendants appear on a list of more than 20,000 people who, according to the federal government, may have registered to vote without being citizens.
For his part, Bill Essayli, first deputy U.S. attorney, stated that the arrests support the administration's warnings regarding the registration of non-citizens in California's electoral processes.
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