DOJ Charges 28 California Green Card Holders With Voting and Citizenship Crimes; 11 Arrested
Federal prosecutors say all 28 are lawful permanent residents and all appear on the list of more than 20,000 likely noncitizen registrants DOJ gave California last week. California's attorney general says 28 cases out of 23 million voters show the state's safeguards are working. None of the defendants has been convicted.
By Rachel Dunmore, Washington Correspondent
Published · 10 min read
The Overview
The facts, straight
BREAKING: The Justice Department announced charges Monday against 28 California residents it says are noncitizens who registered or voted illegally. This story may be updated. Times ET.
Federal agents on Monday arrested 11 people in California who are among 28 charged in criminal complaints with federal election and immigration crimes, the Justice Department announced. The department says the defendants "fraudulently registered to vote in U.S. elections, electoral contests in which most of them cast illegal and fraudulently obtained ballots." All 28, it says, are lawful permanent residents, or "green card" holders. Green card holders may live and work in the United States but may not vote in federal elections.
The charges are accusations. "A complaint, indictment, and information merely contain accusations," the department's release says. "All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law." Radio Purple is not naming the defendants.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, whose department's Homeland Security Investigations agents worked the case with the FBI, called it "Operation Protect the Vote." He posted at 11:19 a.m. ET:
Post: Secretary Markwayne Mullin (@SecMullinDHS) on X, Oct. 19, 2026, 11:19 a.m. ET.
"I'm proud of the work of our @HSI_HQ agents and our @FBI partners on Operation Protect the Vote in California.
American elections are for Americans, and every non-citizen registered to vote and voting in our elections takes away the legitimacy of our republic.
We will continue to root out voter fraud all across America and ensure our elections are free and fair."
FBI Director Kash Patel followed at 11:31 a.m. ET:
Post: FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) on X, Oct. 19, 2026, 11:31 a.m. ET.
"More arrests this morning tied to alleged voter fraud.
Protecting American elections from criminal interference remains a top priority of this @FBI.
We will use every legal resource to hold those who violate our election laws accountable and defend every American citizen's constitutional right to vote.
Thank you @DHSgov and @TheJusticeDept
-DKP🇺🇸"
The charges, district by district. The cases were filed in all four of California's federal judicial districts, according to the Justice Department:
- Central District (Los Angeles and surrounding counties): 13 defendants, charged with felonies including making false statements in a naturalization application.
- Eastern District (Sacramento and the Central Valley): six defendants, charged with voting by an alien in a federal election, which the release describes as "a misdemeanor that carries a statutory maximum sentence of one year."
- Northern District (San Francisco Bay Area): five defendants, charged with attempted procurement of naturalization contrary to law, false statement under oath and voting by an alien.
- Southern District (San Diego and Imperial counties): four defendants, charged with making a false claim to citizenship to vote, unlawful attempted procurement of naturalization and false statement under oath.
Announcing the charges in California, Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said in a video posted by the department that the defendants are "charged with some combination of unlawful voting by an alien, a false claim of US citizenship in order to vote or register to vote, and knowingly depriving the residents of California of a fair and impartial election process." He also said at least eight of the defendants allegedly voted more than once. The department has not publicly said how many ballots in all the defendants are accused of casting.
The list of 20,000. Every defendant, the department says, is on a list of more than 20,000 people federal agencies identified as likely noncitizen registrants and sent to California election officials on Oct. 13. "Each of the 28 defendants charged today appears on the list of more than 20,000 likely noncitizen registrants we provided to California election officials last week," McCotter said in the release. "California refused to look at that list. Today's charges show exactly what that refusal puts at risk. California must verify the citizenship of those more than 20,000 registrants before mail-in ballots are counted."
The department sued the state, Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber and Los Angeles County registrar Dean C. Logan over that list last week, asking a federal judge in Los Angeles to have ballots from the flagged registrants set aside. Radio Purple's earlier coverage of that case, United States v. State of California, No. 2:26-cv-12025, is here. In the video, McCotter said that "just a few minutes ago we filed an emergency motion for relief asking the court to grant our motion for a TRO and a preliminary injunction and set aside and segregate the ballots of these individuals who are on the list until we can confirm whether they are in fact US citizens." No judge has ruled on that request.
How the list was built. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who oversees federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, posted at 7:21 p.m. ET that the list was built through "data cleaning, identity matching, removal of citizens and deceased individuals, manual USCIS review, supervisory sign-off, and law-enforcement screening," and that "Sworn declarations in today's TRO filing detail each step." Radio Purple has not yet reviewed those declarations. At Monday's news conference, McCotter described the process in more detail, ABC News reported: DHS cross-referenced "publicly available voter rolls" with "other government databases" and "other public information," and then "subtracted anybody who had any sort of evidence of actually being a citizen. So we looked at State Department records, passport records, Social Security Administration, and alien files."
Election officials. Asked whether election workers could face charges, McCotter said, according to ABC News: "I'm not going to prejudge or pre-announce any sort of criminal case, but this is not an unusual doctrine … aiding and abetting. It applies to all federal crimes, not just elections." In an Oct. 16 letter to the Los Angeles County Counsel's Office, he had warned that "If persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Essayli posted.
What the Left Says
The progressive and Democratic case
California officials say the charges, if proven, should be prosecuted, and that they show the state's system is working rather than failing. Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, posted at 8:31 p.m. ET:
"Let's be clear about the facts: California has more than 23 million registered voters — the 28 cases of alleged voter fraud announced this morning represent .0001% of that total.
Isolated cases of voter fraud occur in red and blue states alike. As I've said repeatedly, any substantiated allegation of voter fraud should be taken seriously and, when supported by the facts and law, prosecuted.
We have safeguards in place to protect election integrity, and they're working."
Los Angeles County's top election official, Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean C. Logan, has said his office did not open the drive on which DOJ sent the list. In an Oct. 14 statement, Logan said the letter "included a USB drive purportedly containing the referenced records, along with a handwritten note providing a password. We have not accessed the drive because doing so would conflict with established data privacy and information security protocols. We do not consider the device a secure medium." He added that "any action to remove a voter from eligibility must be based on verifiable information, not assertions of unconfirmed data matching."
Where Reality Likely Sits
Radio Purple's analysis
How common is it? The two sides are reading the same number differently. To Bonta, 28 cases out of more than 23 million registered voters is evidence that safeguards work. To Essayli, it is what prosecutors could charge in a week from a list California has not reviewed. The best-known independent count is old and limited: in a 2017 study of the 2016 general election, the Brennan Center for Justice, a law and policy institute at New York University School of Law, surveyed officials in 42 jurisdictions who oversaw 23.5 million votes. It found they "referred only an estimated 30 incidents of suspected noncitizen voting for further investigation or prosecution," or "0.0001 percent of the 2016 votes in those jurisdictions." That study counted cases officials caught and referred, which is the gap Essayli points to. The more than 20,000 names on DOJ's list are, in the department's own word, "likely" noncitizens; how many are actually noncitizens, and how many voted, has not been established in court.
Two numbers that don't yet match. The department's national release says the false-statement and voter-registration charges are "felonies that carry a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison." The same release says the six Eastern District defendants face a misdemeanor charge with a one-year maximum, so not every defendant faces a felony. Separately, Homeland Security Investigations posted that "HSI agents arrested 14 foreign nationals in Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco," while the Justice Department says 11 people were arrested. Radio Purple could not immediately reconcile the two figures.
What the law says. The charges DOJ describes track several federal statutes. It is a crime for a noncitizen to vote in an election for federal office, punishable by up to one year (18 U.S.C. § 611). Falsely claiming U.S. citizenship "in order to register to vote or to vote in any Federal, State, or local election" carries up to five years (18 U.S.C. § 1015(f)), as does knowingly making a false statement under oath in a naturalization matter (§ 1015(a)). Falsely and willfully claiming to be a citizen in general carries up to three years (18 U.S.C. § 911). Unlawfully procuring or attempting to procure naturalization carries up to 10 years for a first or second offense (18 U.S.C. § 1425). And it is a crime, punishable by up to five years, to knowingly and willfully deprive "the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process" through registrations or ballots known to be "materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent" (52 U.S.C. § 20511). Sections 611 and 1015(f) both exempt people who meet all three of these conditions: each parent is or was a citizen, they lived permanently in the U.S. before age 16, and they reasonably believed they were citizens.
Common ground. Both sides say, in their own words, that noncitizens should not vote and that proven cases should be prosecuted. Bonta says any substantiated allegation "should be taken seriously and, when supported by the facts and law, prosecuted." The administration says "One illegal vote is too many." The live dispute is over the list: whether it is reliable enough for election officials to act on two weeks before Election Day, how they could review it securely, and whether a judge will order ballots set aside while that happens. Radio Purple has tracked the department's wider voter-roll litigation here.
What the Right Says
The conservative and Republican case
Administration officials say the cases prove the list is real and that California should act on it before ballots are counted. "Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen," McCotter said in the department's release. The department's post of his remarks quotes him: "Today's charges demonstrate why that lawsuit is so important. The lawsuit is about preventing voter fraud that cancels out the votes of U.S. citizens. Enforcing federal law increases the integrity of elections — it increases confidence in elections."
Essayli said in the release: "Today's arrests prove what we have been saying… 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."
He also argued that 28 charges are a floor, not a total. "No, this isn't the total number of noncitizen voters in California," Essayli posted at 5:57 p.m. ET. "Police can't catch every speeder, but that doesn't mean speeding isn't widespread. 28 is what we could charge in a week." He said all 28 "are still registered voters, and ballots are going out now," and that "One illegal vote is too many."
Responding to the argument that noncitizen voting is uncommon, Essayli posted at 7:59 p.m. ET: "'Rare' is a claim, not a finding. A state can only call it rare if it's checking, but California does not confirm voters' citizenship status and refused to review our list."
Sources & Citations
- U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, “Justice Department Charges 28 Foreign Nationals in California with Election Crimes”, October 19, 2026.
- U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California, “11 Foreign Nationals Arrested in California on Federal Charges Alleging They Illegally Voted”, October 19, 2026.
- X (@TheJusticeDept), “Justice Department post and video of Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter's announcement”, October 19, 2026.
- X (@FBIDirectorKash), “FBI Director Kash Patel post on X”, October 19, 2026.
- X (@SecMullinDHS), “Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin post on X”, October 19, 2026.
- X (@HSI_HQ), “Homeland Security Investigations post on X”, October 19, 2026.
- X (@USAttyEssayli), “First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli posts on X”, October 19, 2026.
- X (@AGRobBonta), “California Attorney General Rob Bonta post on X”, October 19, 2026.
- Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, “Statement from Dean Logan Regarding U.S. Department of Justice Correspondence”, October 14, 2026.
- ABC News, “DOJ charges 28 with unlawful voting, election-related offenses”, October 19, 2026.
- Brennan Center for Justice, “Noncitizen Voting: The Missing Millions”, May 5, 2017.
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, “18 U.S. Code § 611 - Voting by aliens”, January 1, 2026.
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, “18 U.S. Code § 1015 - Naturalization, citizenship or alien registry”, January 1, 2026.
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, “18 U.S. Code § 911 - Citizen of the United States”, January 1, 2026.
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, “18 U.S. Code § 1425 - Procurement of citizenship or naturalization unlawfully”, January 1, 2026.
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, “52 U.S. Code § 20511 - Criminal penalties”, January 1, 2026.
Positions above are attributed to the public statements and published reporting cited here. Quotations are taken from these sources; Radio Purple does not publish unattributed or invented quotes. See an error? Request a correction.