Justice Department Charges 28 Foreign Nationals in California Election Crimes: 11 Arrested in Protect the Vote Operation
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department announced on October 19 that federal law enforcement across California arrested 11 foreign nationals that day as part of criminal charges against 28 people accused of fraudulently registering to vote in U.S. elections, with most alleged to have cast illegal ballots. The arrests are part of Operation Protect the Vote, a coordinated effort among all four California-based U.S. Attorney's Offices.
The department said all 28 defendants are lawful permanent residents, or green card holders, who have legal status but are not U.S. citizens and are not permitted to vote. Charges include making false statements in a naturalization application and fraudulent voter registration, both felonies carrying a maximum of five years in federal prison; some Eastern District defendants face a misdemeanor charge of voting by an alien, carrying up to one year. Those arrested were expected to make initial court appearances that afternoon.
By district, 13 defendants are in the Central District, including residents of Rancho Palos Verdes, Long Beach, Anaheim and Commerce; six in the Eastern District, including Clovis, Fresno and Sacramento; five in the Northern District, including San Jose, San Francisco and Daly City; and four in the Southern District, including San Diego, National City and Escondido. According to court documents, the defendants allegedly claimed under oath in voter registration applications that they were U.S. citizens, voted in recent elections after their registrations were approved, and later denied in naturalization paperwork that they had ever claimed citizenship or voted.
On October 13, the federal government gave California a list of the individuals and asked that their mail ballots be set aside until citizenship could be confirmed. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said each of the 28 defendants appears on the list of more than 20,000 likely noncitizen registrants provided to California election officials, and the United States has sued over the ballot set-aside issue. The department noted that a complaint contains only accusations and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 美国投票站（资料图，CC BY-SA 2.0，via Wikimedia Commons）
