The United States Department of Justice has charged 48 noncitizens, including 47 green card holders, with election-related offences across five states, in one of the largest coordinated announcements of its kind days before the November 3 midterm elections. The cases, announced on October 26, allege illegal voting in federal elections, fraudulent voter registration and false claims of American citizenship, and they span California, Pennsylvania, Florida, New York and Nevada.
Prosecutors stress the charges are allegations, not convictions, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless proved guilty. But the announcement lands amid intense argument about election security in the final week of campaigning.
The department's announcement pulled together separate cases from ten federal judicial districts into a single national release. The charges include voting in a federal election while not a citizen, falsely claiming citizenship to register or vote, and making false statements during naturalisation.
California dominates the list. Twenty-eight defendants were charged across the state's four federal districts, many as part of an effort prosecutors call "Operation Protect the Vote". Thirteen defendants in California's Central District face felony charges, including allegations involving false statements in naturalisation applications, while six defendants in the Eastern District face charges of voting as noncitizens, an offence prosecutors say carries a maximum sentence of one year in federal prison.
Pennsylvania accounts for nine defendants, Florida six, New York four and Nevada one. The defendants come from more than 20 countries, with Mexico the most common at nine, all in California. More than 30 of the 48 are accused of voting in 2024.
The one defendant who is not a lawful permanent resident is Alfredo Santiesteban, 73, of Philadelphia, described by the department as an illegal alien from Cuba who cast a ballot in the 2024 general election.
Several cases illustrate how the alleged offences unfolded over years. In California, Omar Alexander Muñoz, 72, a Belizean national and lawful permanent resident, is accused of registering to vote in September 2019 by claiming American citizenship, then voting in 2020, twice in 2022 and again in 2024. Prosecutors further allege he denied under oath in a naturalisation application that he had ever claimed citizenship.
Two defendants in California's Eastern District, Giezell Viduya Adawag, 41, of Vacaville, and Kamlesh Navnitlal Shah, 67, of Sacramento, are accused of registering on Election Day 2024, falsely claiming citizenship, and voting that day. Another Indian national, Amandeep Kaur, 30, is accused of registering to vote in 2022 and casting a ballot in November 2024.
Camilo Giles Jiménez, 51, a Mexican national from Kerman in Fresno County, is accused of voting by mail in the March 2024 primary, the November 2024 general election and the June 2, 2026 primary. The complaint says he admitted to agents that he registered after receiving his green card, knowing he was not a citizen. Maricela Nazarín González, 43, of Clovis, is accused of voting in 2022, twice in 2024 and again in 2025. The oldest registration cited in the case summaries dates back to 2002.
In Pennsylvania, Artur Kopacz, 50, of Poland, is accused of voting in the 2022 and 2024 general elections, while other defendants in the state allegedly voted in federal elections in 2022 or 2024.
Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in elections for federal office. Knowingly making a false claim of citizenship to register or vote is also a federal offence, as is making a false statement in a naturalisation application. Penalties vary: voting as a noncitizen is typically a misdemeanour, while false statements in citizenship applications can carry heavier felony consequences.
Green card holders occupy a distinctive position in American immigration law. Roughly 13 million people hold lawful permanent resident status. They may live and work in the country indefinitely, but they cannot vote in federal elections, and they can only do so after becoming naturalised citizens.
That distinction is at the heart of the political debate. Supporters of strict enforcement argue that even a small number of unlawful votes undermines confidence in elections, particularly in close races. Critics counter that documented cases of noncitizen voting are rare relative to the size of the electorate, and that the prosecutions should be judged case by case rather than treated as evidence of a systemic problem.
Election integrity has been a recurring theme of the president's public statements, including his October 26 offer of a $1 million reward for information leading to election-fraud convictions.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter framed the cases as a defence of lawful voters. "Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen," McCotter said, adding that each of the 28 California defendants charged appeared on a list of more than 20,000 likely noncitizen registrants that the department had provided to California election officials the previous week. "California refused to look at that list," he said.
First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli went further, arguing that the arrests proved a systemic failure in California. "Today's arrests prove what we have been saying," Essayli said. "California 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."
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the prosecutions were intended to protect election integrity and deter voting by ineligible individuals, arguing that even a small number of unlawful ballots could matter in closely contested elections.
Immigration lawyers urged caution. Rehan Alimohammad, an immigration law expert, told Newsweek that the cases represented a small proportion of the approximately 13 million lawful permanent residents in the United States, and stressed that defendants remain presumed innocent unless prosecutors establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The timing of the announcement is impossible to ignore. With the November 3 midterms just days away, the charges feed directly into the campaign's closing argument about the integrity of American elections. For the administration, the cases are presented as proof that enforcement works; for critics, they raise questions about whether a law-enforcement action so close to an election risks being read as a political message.
The California dimension adds a further layer. The dispute over the list of more than 20,000 likely noncitizen registrants, and the state's refusal to act on it, points to a deeper federal-state conflict over who controls voter-roll maintenance and how aggressively states should investigate registration records.
Related coverage: Court Rejects Bid to Set Aside 20,000 California Mail Ballots, Trump Announces $1 Million Reward for Voter Fraud Tips Ahead of Midterms and James Comey Third Criminal Case: DOJ Accuses Ex-FBI Chief of Leaking in 2016.
The 48 defendants will now move through the federal courts, with proceedings expected across the ten districts involved. Because the cases are separate prosecutions, they will proceed at different speeds.
The political argument will continue in parallel, with the administration expected to cite the cases as it presses states for greater access to voter-roll data.
Forty-eight noncitizens were charged in the October 26 announcement, across five states and ten federal judicial districts. Forty-seven are lawful permanent residents and one is described by prosecutors as being in the country illegally.
California 28, Pennsylvania nine, Florida six, New York four and Nevada one, spanning elections in 2020, 2022, 2024 and a June 2026 primary.
Green card holders may live and work permanently in the US but cannot vote in federal elections. Only US citizens may vote for federal office.
Consequences depend on the charge and the case, but unlawful voting and false citizenship claims can affect naturalisation eligibility and, in some circumstances, lead to immigration proceedings or the loss of permanent residence.
No. The charges are allegations that prosecutors must prove in court. Every defendant is presumed innocent unless prosecutors establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and none of the cases has yet been decided.
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