DOJ Charges 28 California Green Card Holders with Illegal Voting and False Citizenship Claims in Operation Protect the Vote

Federal authorities charged 28 lawful permanent residents across California with fraudulently registering to vote or casting ballots in U.S. elections, arresting 11 of them Monday as part of “Operation Protect the Vote.”

The Justice Department said the coordinated effort involved all four California-based U.S. Attorney’s Offices. All 28 defendants are green card holders who have legal status in the United States but are not citizens and are not permitted to vote in federal elections. Most face felony charges of making false statements on naturalization applications. Some also face charges of fraudulent voter registration. Both offenses carry a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

Officials said 21 of the defendants allegedly cast ballots, some in multiple election cycles. The remaining defendants are accused of registering to vote while claiming U.S. citizenship. Eleven were taken into custody Monday and were expected to make initial court appearances the same day. The others are expected to be arrested in the near future. No pleas were taken Monday.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said each of the 28 defendants appears on a list of more than 20,000 likely noncitizen registrants that the federal government provided to California election officials last week. “Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen,” McCotter said. “California refused to look at that list. Today’s charges show exactly what that refusal puts at risk. California must verify the citizenship of those more than 20,000 registrants before mail-in ballots are counted.”

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in the Central District of California, said the arrests demonstrate that California is mailing ballots to noncitizens and refusing to comply with federal law. “The voting rights of American citizens must be protected,” Essayli said.

The charges follow a lawsuit the Justice Department filed last week against California and Los Angeles County election officials. The suit seeks a court order preventing the tabulation of vote-by-mail ballots from the roughly 20,000 individuals the federal government identified as likely noncitizens until their citizenship status is confirmed. Federal officials said they gave the state a password-protected thumb drive containing the names and a 48-hour deadline to review the list and set the ballots aside. California declined to take those steps.

According to the Justice Department, the defendants knowingly and willfully lied under oath on voter registration applications that they were U.S. citizens. Their applications were approved. In many cases, they later cast ballots. They then made false statements on naturalization paperwork denying that they had ever claimed citizenship, registered to vote, or voted.

Examples from the Central District of California include Omar Alexander Muñoz, 72, a Belizean national in Commerce, who allegedly registered in 2019 claiming citizenship and voted in 2020, twice in 2022, and in 2024, then lied on his naturalization application. Amandeep Kaur, 30, an Indian national in Rancho Palos Verdes, allegedly registered in 2022 and voted in 2024. Similar cases span the Eastern, Northern, and Southern Districts, involving defendants from countries including Mexico, Guatemala, the Philippines, India, and Canada.

Homeland Security Investigations Acting Executive Associate Director John A. Condon said HSI is committed to investigating criminal conduct that undermines public confidence in elections and will continue working with partners to pursue those who violate federal law.

California officials have previously disputed the scale of noncitizen registration and argued that isolated cases do not indicate systemic problems. The Justice Department has maintained that even small numbers of illegal votes can affect close races and that the state created an emergency by declining to act on the federal list. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.