Attorney General Todd Blanche announced charges Monday against 63 people accused of illegal voting, false claims of citizenship and fraudulent voter registration in 15 states, the day before Americans went to the polls.
“Today’s announcement marks the largest surge of voter-fraud arrests since President Trump returned to office,” Blanche said in a Justice Department release. “These foreign nationals allegedly took advantage of the trust of the American people and flouted the laws that govern our nation’s elections.”
The department said it has charged 195 aliens in 25 states with illegal voting and registration offenses in the last nine weeks, and 239 people with voting fraud-related offenses since the administration began.
Who was charged
Of the 63 defendants, 58 are listed as lawful permanent residents and four as illegal aliens, according to the release. One defendant, charged in New Mexico with a fraudulent registration, has no immigration status listed. North Carolina had the most cases, 18, followed by California with 12 and Tennessee with seven. The defendants came from more than 30 countries, led by Mexico with nine and Canada with six.
Some cases cover years of voting. Gregory Eugene Wade, charged in eastern North Carolina, is accused over 12 general elections. Elizabeth Margaret Crudup, a 52-year-old Kenyan national and green card holder in the same district, is accused of voting in nine general and nine primary elections.
In Georgia, prosecutors said Benito Covarrubias Iniguez, 64, a Mexican national living in Winder, entered the country in 2000, obtained a passport in the name of a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico, registered and voted in November 2024. He was arrested Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta said.
“Votes of non-citizens impersonating Americans undermine the integrity of our cherished democratic process and diminish public confidence in our election results,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said.
In Utah, a Samoan national with a green card was charged with voting in November 2024. The misdemeanor carries up to a year in prison, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
California
In Los Angeles, federal prosecutors charged six more foreign nationals in what they call Operation Protect the Vote. “We have now charged 34 defendants in Operation Protect the Vote, and every one of their names was on the list we provided to California officials,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said, as quoted by Legal Insurrection. “Every illegal vote cast and counted cancels the legitimate vote of an American citizen.”
On Monday, the Supreme Court turned down the administration’s request to set aside about 20,000 California mail ballots, with Justice Elena Kagan denying it without comment, the Washington Examiner reported.
The charges are accusations, and all defendants are presumed innocent. A UCLA review found that 42% of names on the department’s California list were not on the state’s current voter file, according to Immigration Analytics.
The bottom line
Opponents of citizenship checks on voter rolls have argued for years that noncitizen voting is too rare to be worth the effort. The Justice Department has now charged 239 people since the start of this administration, and Monday’s batch alone includes a man accused of voting under a stolen Puerto Rican identity and a woman accused of voting in 18 elections.
Most of the people charged Monday are green card holders, legal residents who went through the immigration system and are expected to know its rules. Several are accused of falsely claiming citizenship to register. Every illegal ballot that was counted canceled the vote of an American citizen.
California officials have refused to work with federal prosecutors on the list Essayli’s office provided, and a Supreme Court justice left 20,000 disputed ballots in the count without comment. States that want voters to trust their results should verify citizenship before Election Day, not fight the Justice Department after it.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Justice: Justice Department Announces Charges Involving 63 Individuals for Election-Related Crimes
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia: Fourth alien arrested in North Georgia for voting in federal elections
- Salt Lake Tribune: Trump’s Justice Department just announced scores of election-related charges
- Legal Insurrection: DOJ Charges Six More Foreign Nationals in California Noncitizen Voting Investigation
- Washington Examiner: 2026 midterm elections live updates
- Immigration Analytics: Noncitizen Voting Charges: DOJ Names 63