Green card holders voter fraud charges: DoJ charges 28 in California
The US Department of Justice announced on Monday that 28 green card holders across California face voter fraud charges for fraudulently registering to vote and, in 21 cases, casting illegal ballots, less than two months before the November midterm elections.
Green card holders voter fraud charges: DoJ charges 28 in California
The US justice department on Monday announced green card holders voter fraud charges against 28 people in California, accusing them of fraudulently registering to vote and, in most cases, of casting ballots. All hold legal status in the United States but are not citizens, and so are not authorized to vote. A justice department spokesperson said 21 of the 28 cast unlawful ballots.
- The charges include making false statements in a naturalization application and fraudulently signing up to vote – felonies that could carry five years in prison.
- Prosecutors alleged the defendants lied under oath in voter registration applications.
- Eleven of the defendants had been taken into custody as of Monday, and arrests were ongoing.
The announcement came days after the justice department sued California, asking the courts to block the state from tabulating certain ballots in the November midterms.
Court papers and individual cases
Court papers made public on Monday suggest that at least some of the people charged were confused about their eligibility. Several agreed to voluntary interviews and were in the process of applying to become naturalized citizens.
One defendant, Erick Ronaldo Soto Mendizábal, told investigators he registered to vote with the help of canvassers outside a supermarket. He said he has been a legal permanent resident since 1976. According to court papers, when he told poll workers he was not a citizen, they said it was OK because they would check whether it was valid; he cast a blank ballot. Investigators claimed Soto had lied about being a citizen once before, in 1992, while trying to re-enter the country from Mexico.
José Probitsado Amaro, a legal permanent resident since 1993, told investigators he could not recall registering to vote but acknowledged receiving a ballot in 2024. An investigator wrote of him: "With what was going on in California and the economy, he decided to fill it out and sign it."
A third case involves a 61-year-old Tongan national who has been a legal permanent resident since 1969. He registered and voted in 2024 and then applied for citizenship this year, stating on his application that he had never falsely claimed to be a US citizen.
It is not yet clear how the defendants were registered. California is one of many states that have automatic voter registration, through the DMV unless voters opt out. It was also not immediately clear whether the defendants had lawyers; the federal public defender's office did not respond to an inquiry.
Standoff with California officials
The arrests sit inside a widening dispute between the justice department and California election officials. Before suing, the department sent Los Angeles county election officials a thumb drive it said contained the names of unlawfully registered noncitizens, and demanded that state officials confirm within 48 hours whether those on the list were citizens. The justice department's lawsuit said it had sent California a list of more than 20,000 people it "believes are likely noncitizens" who were sent mail ballots.
California secretary of state Shirley Weber condemned the demands as "outrageous". She noted that DHS first claimed in July that more than 190,000 registered voters in the state "may be" noncitizens, a figure later revised to 20,000, while refusing to share its data and methodology.
Weber said treating the thousands of voters on the department's list as ineligible until proven otherwise would violate federal law that prohibits states from systematically removing the names of ineligible voters close to a federal election. California has 23.1 million registered voters, according to recent state figures.
Acting US deputy attorney general Trent McCotter acknowledged that the government's list of alleged noncitizen voters in California might not be accurate. He said: "There may be some names on there who, it turns out, ultimately are citizens. We're not perfect, and that's why we've asked California to cooperate with us." Of the dueling estimates, he added: "Think of it like 190,000 is the ceiling, 20,000 is the floor."
On Friday, McCotter sent a letter threatening to prosecute any official who tabulated a ballot from a noncitizen – a threat experts called legally specious and intimidating. On the possibility of charges against election workers, he said that "knowingly" helping someone vote illegally could bring prosecution, citing what he called a well established legal doctrine: aiding and abetting.
Wider context and criticism
The California case is part of a broader push. The justice department said on Monday that a total of 112 people across 20 states have faced federal charges in recent weeks for alleged registration offenses and illegal voting.
The crackdowns have drawn criticism. Janice Hahn, a member of the Los Angeles county board of supervisors, said: "This is voter intimidation and a blatant attempt to undermine trust in our midterm elections." She added: "These arrests are being used to paint a picture of widespread voter fraud when we know that is not the case."
Similar federal efforts have already run into errors elsewhere: last month, Nevada officials said DHS had wrongly identified 185 people on the state's voter rolls as noncitizens.
Voting by noncitizens is extremely rare, and election experts have raised concerns that the justice department's crackdowns could disenfranchise US citizens. Democrats and voting rights groups say the federal efforts are part of a strategy by the Trump administration to sow doubt in the results of the upcoming midterm election.
Eleven of the 28 California defendants are in custody and arrests are continuing, days after the justice department sued to block the tabulation of certain ballots in the November midterms.
