Federal prosecutors have charged 28 green card holders across California with crimes tied to illegal voter registration and voting, and agents arrested 11 of them on Monday, the U.S. Justice Department said.
The department calls the case “Operation Protect the Vote.” All four federal prosecutors’ offices in California took part. Each defendant is a lawful permanent resident. That status allows a person to live and work in the country, but not to vote in U.S. elections.
What prosecutors allege
According to court documents described by the department, the defendants swore on voter registration forms that they were U.S. citizens. Their registrations were approved, and many went on to vote. Several later applied to become citizens and, prosecutors say, falsely stated under oath that they had never claimed citizenship or voted.
- Central District (Los Angeles area): 13 defendants face felony charges, including false statements on a naturalization application. Each count carries up to five years in federal prison.
- Eastern District (Fresno and Sacramento areas): 6 defendants are charged with voting by a noncitizen in a federal election, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year.
- Northern District (Bay Area): 5 defendants face naturalization fraud, false statement and noncitizen voting charges.
- Southern District (San Diego area): 4 defendants are charged with falsely claiming citizenship to vote and with naturalization fraud.
The voting histories in the charging summaries stretch from a 2002 registration to a ballot cast in California’s June 2026 primary. Two Sacramento-area defendants are accused of registering and voting on the same day in the November 2024 general election.
The fight over California’s ballots
The department said every person charged appears on a list of more than 20,000 likely noncitizen registrants it gave California election officials on Oct. 13. Federal officials asked the state to set aside mail ballots from those voters until their citizenship could be checked. California declined, and the United States sued.
“Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen,” Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said. He said California “must verify the citizenship of those more than 20,000 registrants before mail-in ballots are counted.”
Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said the arrests “prove what we have been saying” and accused the state of mailing ballots to noncitizens.
iSEARK.com covered the earlier steps in the dispute: the department’s demand that California set aside the ballots and its lawsuit and warning to election workers.
What comes next
The 11 people arrested Monday were scheduled for first appearances in federal court that afternoon. No pleas were to be entered. Homeland Security Investigations worked the case with federal prosecutors.
Criminal complaints, indictments and informations are accusations only. Every defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Sources: U.S. Justice Department release, Oct. 19; U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California.
