DOJ Charges 16 Across Seven States for Illegal Voting and Citizenship Fraud

The Justice Department announced Friday that 16 people have been charged with illegal voting, illegal registration, and related election crimes in seven states, expanding a noncitizen-voting docket that until now had been rolling out office by office.

The charges include voting by an alien in a federal election, false claims of U.S. citizenship to register or vote, naturalization fraud, passport fraud, wire fraud, and, in at least one case, unlawful firearm possession uncovered during the voting investigation. Defendants include illegal aliens and lawful permanent residents from Mexico, Nigeria, India, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Antigua and Barbuda, Venezuela, Colombia, and Russia.

In the Northern District of Texas, prosecutors charged seven people, including Moises Anwar Arellano-Alba, 36, an illegal alien from Mexico with a final removal order, accused of voting in a federal election and lying about citizenship to register. Helen Sayen Adams, 67, a Nigerian lawful permanent resident since May 2024, faces the same pairing of charges. Other Texas defendants include Nigerian, Mexican, Indian, and Congolese nationals accused of voting or lying on registration or naturalization paperwork.

In Del Rio, Monica Carzoli, 46, a Mexican lawful permanent resident, was arrested after admitting she registered and voted in the November 2024 election. In Idaho, a federal grand jury in Boise indicted Fredy Avila Gomez, a Mexican national, on a stack of counts that includes voting as an alien in May 2022 and November 2024, passport and identification fraud, wire fraud, theft of government funds, and a false statement on a firearm purchase.

Georgia cases include Analiea Milliscent Eccles, 44, described as an illegal alien from Venezuela and a DACA recipient, accused of voting nine times between 2008 and 2024, and Gabriel Covarrubias, 44, a suspected illegal alien from Mexico accused of voting in person under a false name in November 2024 and lying on a passport application. Pauline Lewis, 65, a suspected illegal alien from Antigua and Barbuda, was arrested on a complaint charging voting as a noncitizen.

Gladys Adaeze Okafor, 56, a Nigerian lawful permanent resident, was arrested in Massachusetts on charges of voting in 2022 and in the 2024 general election. Julieta Englestad, 53, a Colombian green-card holder in Wisconsin, is charged with falsely claiming citizenship when she registered in 2022 and with illegal voting. In New Jersey, Santana Coulibaly, a lawful permanent resident, is accused of voting in 2018 and 2020, casting a provisional ballot in 2024, and making false statements on naturalization applications in 2021 and 2024. In Michigan, Victoria Viktorivna Aquilina, 43, a Russian national, is charged with illegally voting in the 2024 general election after registering in 2023.

The department’s public statement put the legal point in one line: if you are not allowed to vote, and you vote, that is a crime. Complaints and indictments are accusations. Every defendant is presumed innocent. What the charging list does show is a multi-district pattern: noncitizens on both illegal and legal immigration statuses allegedly marking ballots in federal elections, then compounding the problem with passport, naturalization, or gun-form lies.

As we previously reported, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and federal prosecutors in Fort Worth had already announced seven Northern District cases earlier in the week. Friday’s package folds those matters into a national announcement and adds Idaho, Georgia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Michigan.