Trump DOJ charges 28 green-card holders in California election cases

The Justice Department announced federal charges Monday, October 19, against 28 lawful permanent residents in California, alleging election-related offenses that include fraudulent voter registration, voting by a noncitizen and false statements in naturalization paperwork. Federal agents arrested 11 of the defendants across the state, according to the department.

The cases mark a concrete new enforcement step in the Trump administration’s escalating confrontation with California over alleged noncitizen voting before the November 3 midterm election. They follow a federal lawsuit and warnings to state and county election officials, but the new defendants are individual voters—not the California officials whom President Donald Trump threatened with imprisonment last week.

What prosecutors allege

The department said all 28 defendants are green-card holders. Permanent residents may live and work legally in the United States, but they are not U.S. citizens and may not vote in federal elections. Prosecutors allege the defendants falsely declared U.S. citizenship on voter-registration forms; the department said most then cast ballots in recent elections.

The charging documents do not all allege the same conduct. Depending on the defendant and jurisdiction, accusations include fraudulent registration, voting by an alien in a federal election, falsely claiming citizenship to vote, attempting to obtain naturalization unlawfully and making false statements under oath in immigration proceedings. The department said the felony counts can carry maximum prison terms of five years, while the federal noncitizen-voting count is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year.

Monday’s announcement described the cases as criminal complaints, indictments or informations filed by the four U.S. attorney’s offices in California. Eleven defendants were scheduled for initial court appearances Monday, where no pleas were expected. Every charge is an allegation; the defendants are presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

How the cases connect to California’s voter-roll dispute

The Justice Department said the 28 names were included on a list of more than 20,000 people whom federal officials identified as likely noncitizens and sent to California on October 13. Federal officials asked the state to set aside those voters’ mail ballots while their citizenship status was checked. California declined the request, saying the administration had not provided evidence establishing that the broader list was accurate.

The administration sued California on October 15 and later warned election officials that knowingly processing ballots from noncitizens could expose them to investigation. Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan responded that the Justice Department had chosen to litigate “unverified assertions of voting eligibility” and said the issue should be resolved in court, according to the Associated Press report published by PBS News.

The 28 prosecutions support the government’s allegations about those particular defendants only if the charges are proved. They do not by themselves establish that all—or most—of the more than 20,000 people on the separate federal list are ineligible. That broader claim remains disputed in the civil case.

A politically charged enforcement push

Justice Department leaders called the statewide action “Operation Protect the Vote.” Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said each defendant appeared on the larger list and argued that California should verify the citizenship of the remaining people before ballots are counted. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the arrests showed that ballots were being mailed to noncitizens.

Those statements reflect the administration’s position. The Associated Press noted that documented noncitizen voting is rare and has not been shown to alter election outcomes. It reported that the Justice Department had charged about 90 people with various forms of election misconduct this year before Monday, including 50 accused of voting as noncitizens, against a national voter-registration total exceeding 227 million in the 2024 presidential election.

The California cases now move into federal court, where prosecutors will have to prove the elements of each charge separately. The parallel lawsuit over the larger voter list will determine whether the state must take additional steps before counting ballots—not the criminal complaints announced Monday.

Sources and image credit

Primary source: the U.S. Justice Department announcement and its description of the filed charges. Independent reporting and California response: Associated Press via PBS News.

Image: Exterior entrance of the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, photographed by Sdkb, via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Center-cropped and resized to 1600×900; no text added.