DOJ charges 28 in California voter fraud sweep amid escalating battle over voter rolls

Federal prosecutors charged 28 foreign nationals with election-related offenses as the Trump administration seeks to block more than 20,000 potentially ineligible California voters from having their mail-in ballots counted. State officials dispute claims of widespread voter fraud.LOS ANGELES (CN) — The Department of Justice announced Monday that 28 foreign nationals living in the United States have been charged with crimes related to voter fraud as part of the Trump administration’s Operation Protect the Vote.The announcement comes just days after the administration filed a lawsuit over California’s mail-in voting system, which the DOJ claims contains more than 20,000 “likely aliens” on its voter rolls.“Today’s charges demonstrate why that lawsuit’s so important,” Trent McCotter, acting U.S. deputy attorney general, said at a press conference in Los Angeles. “I want to be very clear what the lawsuit’s about. It’s about preventing the voter fraud that cancels out the votes of U.S. citizens. Enforcing federal law increases the integrity of elections, and increases confidence in elections.”The DOJ filed an emergency motion for relief on Monday, asking the court for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to set aside the ballots of the voters it has flagged to confirm whether they are U.S. citizens, McCotter said.DOJ attorneys took aim at Sacramento on Monday for choosing not to work with the federal government to root out election fraud.“Over the course of the summer, Department of Homeland Security and DOJ repeatedly tried to enlist the assistance of the state of California to ensure that their voter rolls are clean and include only U.S. citizens,” he told reporters. “We asked California to work collaboratively in that process. We never heard anything back.”McCotter also accused the Los Angeles County elections office of refusing to work with the DOJ.As of Monday, 11 of those charged in California are in custody. Over the last seven weeks, DOJ officials said, 113 people have been charged with similar voting crimes in 20 different states.By contrast, the Biden administration only charged 13 people with voter fraud over the course of its entire administration, the DOJ officials said.All those arrested are permanent residents or green card holders legally allowed to remain in the United States but not permitted to vote. Despite this, the DOJ said many are accused of voting multiple times, including in the October 2026 primary election.Some of those charged have been registered to vote going back more than 20 years — though not all of them are accused of casting a ballot.The charges include a mix of misdemeanors and felonies, including making false statements in a naturalization application and fraudulent voter registration. Both of those latter charges carry a maximum of five years in prison.Ten of the defendants are Mexican nationals, but others come from Guatemala, the Philippines and Canada. About half live in Los Angeles County.“Today’s arrests prove what we have been saying,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement. “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.”The DOJ warned California in July that its voter rolls may include as many as 190,000 noncitizen voters. The 20,000 figure refers to those the DOJ believes are most likely noncitizen registrants.The DOJ said it corroborated publicly accessible data from the state’s voter rolls with immigration data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to identify the likely noncitizens in California’s mail-in voting system. The DOJ said it excluded naturalized citizens, deceased voters and voters with parent-based citizenship from the list.California Secretary of State Shirley Weber previously expressed doubts about the claims and asked for the DOJ’s methodology.“We have now revealed the sourcing here and the methodology. We think it’s pretty solid,” McCotter told a reporter during the press conference. “If they wanted to cooperate, they have our number, and they know how to get in contact with all of us. There’s clearly just no motivation on their part.”McCotter said the charges show what California risks by refusing to work with the DOJ.“California must verify the citizenship of those more than 20,000 registrants before mail-in ballots are counted,” he said.In a statement to Courthouse News, the California Attorney General’s Office said it takes voter fraud claims seriously. The state has safeguards in place to manage such cases, Walter Garcia, a spokesperson for the office, said.“The 28 individuals charged this morning represent a tiny fraction — approximately 0.0001% — of California’s more than 23 million registered voters,” Garcia said. “That’s not evidence of widespread voter fraud, even if the allegations are true. Isolated cases of alleged voter fraud occur in red and blue states alike, and they should be prosecuted wherever they occur.”A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County elections office did not respond to a request for comment.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads