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DOJ Arrests Over Two Dozen Noncitizens in California Voter Fraud Sweep
Confirmed
In Short: The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Monday that it had arrested over two dozen noncitizens in Los Angeles, California.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Monday that it had arrested over two dozen noncitizens in Los Angeles, California, as part of a crackdown dubbed 'Operation Protect the Vote.'
Federal authorities executed the arrests in Commerce, a small city in Los Angeles County, where a 72-year-old Belize-born man was among those taken into custody for allegedly voting illegally in four elections.
According to OAN Staff Lillian Mann, the arrests were part of the Trump administration's efforts to combat noncitizen voting in the final stretch before the November midterm elections.
The federal government has prioritized investigating noncitizen voting, with the Justice Department seeking access to states’ voter registration records, including dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers.
More than two dozen foreign nationals were charged with crimes including making false statements on naturalization applications and submitting fraudulent voter registrations.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber responded to the DOJ's lawsuit, stating that the federal government had not provided evidence to support its allegation that 20,000 names on the state's voter rolls were of noncitizens.
In a letter to the Justice Department, Weber noted that the state had received a thumb drive containing a list of 20,000 names, along with a handwritten note providing a password to access the list.
Dean Logan, Los Angeles County Registrar, said his office had received the letter and thumb drive, but criticized the DOJ's demands as unprecedented and baseless.
Logan emphasized that his office could not withhold ballots or refuse to count them based solely on unverified allegations.
The lawsuit seeks to bar California from counting mail-in ballots for people identified as “likely” noncitizens until their status can be confirmed.
California officials have expressed concern over the DOJ's demands, which they view as an emergency of the DOJ's creation.
The Justice Department has previously claimed that California had 190,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls, but refused to provide the methodology or data sources when asked.
What this adds
The arrests and lawsuit are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to address concerns about noncitizen voting in the lead-up to the midterm elections.
The DOJ's actions have sparked debate over the methods and evidence used to identify noncitizens on voter rolls.
What's confirmed
- Before Monday, the DOJ reportedly charged about 90 people this year for various types of election misconduct, including 50 who purportedly voted as noncitizens.
- The lawsuit comes after the Justice Department said California officials failed to meet a 48-hour deadline to review a password-protected thumb drive that contains a list of 20,000 names.
- She said that over the summer, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that California had 190,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls but refused to provide the methodology or data sources when the office asked for them.
- “The United States thus seeks commonplace election relief when a ballot is called into question,” the lawsuit says.
- California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said in a letter to the Justice Department that the federal government hasn't provided evidence to support its allegation that 20,000 names on the state's voter rolls are of noncitizens.
- "What happened to those 170,000. They just got those wrong," Bonta said.
- She referenced an instance in which the federal government alleged nearly 16,000 possible noncitizens were listed on Nevada's voter rolls, but the state determined that all were, in fact, U.S.
- "This Court should enjoin California from presently tabulating vote by-mail ballots from likely noncitizens in the upcoming federal election until the voter's citizenship status can be determined," the lawsuit says.
- In her letter Thursday, she called the recent demands "an emergency of the DOJ's creation."
What's still developing
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- "I'd love to tell you that, but it wouldn't be appropriate to say," Trump said.
- "We write to express our deep concern over the escalating execution of political prisoners by the Iranian regime," the lawmakers wrote, characterizing the executions as a "grave violation of fundamental human rights and international legal standards."
- When he was asked in May about reports that weapons had been provided to Kurdish groups for possible transfer to Iranians, Rubio said the president was "heartbroken" by images coming out of Iran and described Tehran as "a vicious regime," but declined to preview any specific actions “I think what the president is expressing is the desire that he wishes the Iranian people had an ability to fight back against some of these things that are happening to them,” Rubio said.
- "The United States has long stood for the defense of human rights and the protection of those who seek freedom and democracy," the lawmakers wrote.
- "When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?" President Trump wrote on his Truth Social app Tuesday evening.