US arrests over 2 dozen in California sweep targeting alleged non-citizen voters

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against 28 green card holders in California, accused of fraudulently registering to vote and casting illegal ballots. This follows a series of efforts by the federal government to target noncitizen voting, which Democrats and voting rights groups claim aims to cast doubt on the outcomes of the upcoming midterm elections.

The charges include making false statements on a naturalization application and unlawfully signing up to vote, with penalties potentially including five years in prison. All 28 accused individuals are lawful permanent residents, who have legal status in the U.S. but are not citizens and cannot vote. 21 of the 28 defendants are reported to have cast unlawful ballots, and 11 have already been arrested, with ongoing investigations.

Prosecutors alleged that the defendants lied under oath in their voter registration applications. The crackdown comes days after the justice department sued California, requesting courts to block the state from counting certain ballots in the November midterms. The department had earlier provided Los Angeles county election officials with a thumb drive containing names of noncitizens who were allegedly unlawfully registered to vote, demanding that California officials confirm the citizenship status of those on the list and set aside ballots for those who remained unconfirmed.

This lawsuit accused the state of listing over 20,000 individuals believed to be noncitizens who received mail ballots. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber criticized the justice department's demands as "outrageous," arguing that federal officials had made "vague and unsubstantiated allegations" of voter fraud in the state.

Weber highlighted that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had initially claimed in July that more than 190,000 registered voters in California "may be" noncitizens, later reducing that number to 20,000 without sharing details about its data or methodology. Weber expressed concern that treating the thousands of voters on the DOJ's list as ineligible until proven otherwise would violate federal law prohibiting states from systematically removing the names of ineligible voters from voter lists ahead of a federal election.

The acting US deputy attorney general, Trent McCotter, acknowledged that the government's list of alleged noncitizen voters in California may contain inaccuracies, stating that some names on the list might turn out to be citizens. However, McCotter emphasized that the government has asked California to cooperate with them. McCotter also sent a letter to election officials threatening prosecution for any official that processes a ballot from a noncitizen, an action that experts consider legally dubious and a clear attempt to intimidate officials.

Previous efforts by the justice department to identify and prosecute alleged noncitizen voters have faced challenges, such as in Nevada, where state officials claimed the DHS had incorrectly identified 185 individuals on the state's voter rolls as noncitizens.