Feds Arrest 11 in California Noncitizen Voting Sweep

Federal agents across California arrested 11 foreign nationals on Monday on charges that they fraudulently registered to vote in U.S. elections, the Justice Department announced. Prosecutors say most of them also cast illegal and fraudulently obtained ballots in those contests.

The arrests are part of Operation Protect the Vote, which the department describes as a coordinated effort among all four California-based U.S. Attorney's Offices to root out fraud in elections and protect electoral integrity. The department says all 28 foreign nationals charged in the operation are lawful permanent residents, or green card holders. They have legal immigration status, the department notes, but they are not citizens and are not permitted to vote in U.S. elections.

The charges include making false statements in a naturalization application, and some of the defendants are also charged with fraudulent voter registration. Both charges are felonies that carry a statutory maximum of five years in federal prison, according to the department. The criminal complaints describe defendants who the department says registered to vote as far back as 2013 and as recently as 2024, and who voted in elections including November 2020, 2022 and November 2024. Several are accused of denying in their naturalization interviews that they had ever claimed citizenship or voted.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the arrests prove what his office has been saying: that California is mailing ballots to noncitizens and refusing to comply with federal law, which makes it a crime for noncitizens to vote. He said the voting rights of American citizens must be protected.

The Associated Press reports the arrests escalate a fight between the federal government and California over the state's voter rolls. The Justice Department sued the state last week, the AP reports, and on Friday followed up with a letter from acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter warning that election officials who knowingly process ballots cast by noncitizens are at risk of investigation and potential prosecution.

Before Monday, the Justice Department had charged about 90 people this year for various types of election misconduct, including 50 alleged to have voted as noncitizens, according to the AP. The AP notes there were more than 227 million registered voters in the United States during the 2024 presidential election.