Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,
Federal agents arrested more than two dozen foreign nationals across California on Monday, for fraudulently registering and voting in U.S. elections.
Specifically, the 28 suspects are being charged with a combination of illegal voting, making a false claim of U.S. citizenship in order to vote, and “knowingly depriving the residents of California of a fair and impartial election process,” Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter announced at a news conference in Los Angeles.
The statewide sweep was executed by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and other federal law enforcement agencies as part of “Operation Protect the Vote.”
“This operation marks an important step in ongoing efforts to investigate election-related crimes. HSI will continue to investigate alleged voter fraud and hold those responsible accountable under the law,” HSI stated on X.
Operation Protect the Vote spans all four federal judicial districts in the state, with Homeland Security Investigations leading the coordinated arrests. One prominent case involves Alexander Muñoz, a 72-year-old Belizean national in Commerce, CA, who allegedly claimed U.S. citizenship in 2019 to register and subsequently voted in 2020, 2022, and 2024.
The crackdown follows a DOJ lawsuit filed against California on October 15 after state officials refused to review a list of over 20,000 suspected noncitizens on voter rolls within a 48-hour deadline. While federal prosecutors assert these arrests confirm widespread noncitizen voting, California Governor Gavin Newsom and state election officials dispute the scale of the issue, characterizing the federal intervention as an attempt to bully and suppress voters ahead of the November 3 midterm election.
Bill Essayli, the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, warned last week that California election workers could face criminal liability under federal aiding-and-abetting laws if they knowingly process unlawful ballots, asserting that the state would be facilitating a violation of federal law.
President Donald Trump issued his own warning on Friday, advising California election officials they could face lengthy prison sentences if they count ballots cast by suspected illegal aliens and noncitizens in the upcoming midterm elections.
“They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!” Trump declared Friday on Truth Social, sharing a DOJ letter warning to Los Angeles County officials.
During the press conference Monday, McCotter announced that that the Justice Department had just filed a motion for emergency relief in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, asking the Court to grant its motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) and a preliminary injunction and set aside and segregate the ballots of the 20,000+ individuals until it can be determined that they are U.S. citizens.
“They are on California’s voter roll, and therefore already have, or soon will receive a mail-in ballot,” McCotter told reporters.
Essayli stated that Monday’s arrests confirm federal suspicions that noncitizens are voting in California elections, which he noted is “unconstitutional and illegal.
“In the last seven weeks alone, the Department of Justice has charged 113 aliens across twenty states with illegal voting and registration offenses,” Essayli said. “Since the beginning of the Trump administration, the DOJ has charged 156 people with voter fraud-related offenses.”
Essayli said the Justice Department is “investigating thousands more similar cases throughout the nation.”
