Early Monday morning, federal agents arrested a 72-year-old man in Commerce, a working-class city east of downtown Los Angeles, while a news helicopter filmed overhead. Prosecutors say Omar Alexander Muñoz, a citizen of Belize with a green card, registered to vote in 2019, cast ballots in several elections and later lied about it on his application to become a U.S. citizen.
He was one of 28 people federal prosecutors charged across California on Oct. 19 in a coordinated wave of noncitizen voting charges the Justice Department calls “Operation Protect the Vote.” The arrests landed in the middle of a much bigger fight: a federal lawsuit asking a judge to stop California from counting thousands of mail ballots just two weeks before the midterm election.
What the Noncitizen Voting Charges Allege
According to the Justice Department’s announcement, every defendant is a lawful permanent resident, meaning they hold green cards but are not U.S. citizens. Eleven were arrested on Monday. The rest were charged by criminal complaint or, in one case, by information, and were expected to make initial court appearances. No pleas were entered.
The cases were filed by all four federal prosecutors’ offices in California. The Central District, based in Los Angeles, brought 13 cases. The Eastern District, covering Sacramento and Fresno, brought six. The Northern District, covering San Francisco and San Jose, brought five, and the Southern District in San Diego brought four.
The charges fall into three main buckets:
- Voting by an alien in a federal election. A misdemeanor under federal law with a maximum of one year in prison.
- Fraudulent voter registration or a false claim of citizenship to register or vote. A felony carrying up to five years.
- False statements on a naturalization application. Also a felony with up to five years. The citizenship application asks directly whether a person has ever registered to vote or claimed to be a U.S. citizen.
That third category matters. Several defendants are not accused of voting at all. Prosecutors say they registered years ago, in some cases more than two decades back, and then answered “no” when federal immigration officials asked about it on their naturalization paperwork in 2025 or 2026.
Others are accused of voting outright. Prosecutors say a Fresno-area man voted in 2022 and 2024, a Kerman man voted as recently as the June 2026 primary, and two Sacramento-area residents registered and voted on the same day in the November 2024 election. All of them are presumed innocent, and the department’s own release notes that a complaint contains only accusations.
How the 20,000-Name List Was Built
On Oct. 13, federal officials delivered a thumb drive to Los Angeles County and the California secretary of state with the names of more than 20,000 registered voters the government says are likely noncitizens. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, Homeland Security Investigations compared public voter registration files against federal immigration records and used “multiple data-enrichment and verification methods” to flag people. The same release calls the work a “preliminary analysis” that remains ongoing.
At Monday’s news conference, Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter described a more detailed process. He said the Department of Homeland Security removed anyone with evidence of citizenship in State Department passport files, Social Security records, immigration files or naturalization records, and then had the remaining names checked by hand, according to ABC News.
The government gave the state 48 hours to review the names and set those voters’ mail ballots aside. California declined. Los Angeles County would not even open the drive, which reportedly arrived with its password on a sticky note, citing data security concerns. On Oct. 15, the United States sued.
The 20,000 figure is itself a step down. In July, the Department of Homeland Security told California that as many as 190,000 potential noncitizens could be on the state’s rolls. State Attorney General Rob Bonta has publicly asked what happened to the other 170,000. DHS says the larger number remains its estimate and the 20,000 are the subset verified so far.
The Courtroom Fight Over Mail Ballots
The Justice Department is asking a federal judge in Los Angeles for an emergency order that would require California to set aside the vote-by-mail ballots of people on the list, hold off on counting them, and verify their citizenship first. Prosecutors argued in their filing that a ballot cast illegally and counted cannot be pulled back out, so the harm would be permanent. A hearing had not been scheduled as of Monday.
Federal officials stress that they are asking the state to separate ballots, not throw them away. “All this ensures is that the votes of citizens count as they should,” McCotter said, according to ABC7 in Los Angeles.
The department has also raised the stakes for local election workers. In a letter last week, McCotter warned Los Angeles County officials that anyone who knowingly tabulates ballots from people identified as noncitizens could be investigated as an aider and abettor to a federal crime. Asked Monday whether election workers could face charges, he said he would not prejudge any case. President Trump posted on Truth Social that the officials “will all go to jail.”
The Prosecutors’ Case
Bill Essayli, the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District and a former Republican state assemblyman, framed Monday’s arrests as proof of a problem California refuses to see. “Today’s arrests prove what we have been saying,” he said in the department’s release. He also pushed back on the idea that people end up on the rolls by accident, arguing that registrants either attest to citizenship at the DMV or swear to it on a registration form.
The department’s broader case is about scale and trust. “Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen,” McCotter said. Officials say they have charged 113 noncitizens in 20 states over the past seven weeks and are pursuing thousands more potential cases. Earlier this month the department announced a separate batch of 16 defendants in states from Pennsylvania to Hawaii, including a New Mexico man accused of trying to cast his late wife’s absentee ballot.
Supporters of the push argue that the federal government is doing what states have failed to do: checking rolls against the records only Washington holds. They point out that each of the 28 charged in California was found through that list, which, in their view, shows the list works. The same campaign has also driven a wave of civil cases, including the department’s recent effort to strip citizenship from 40 people accused of lying to get it.
California’s Response
Secretary of State Shirley Weber wrote to McCotter on Oct. 13 that the demands are “contrary to both federal and state law,” and her office says federal officials provided nothing when asked for proof, according to MyNewsLA. In public statements, Weber has said the list lacks the detail to be of any investigative use. Gov. Gavin Newsom called the suit a “sad, desperate attempt” to suppress voters.
Los Angeles County’s lawyers raised a more technical problem. In an Oct. 15 letter, the county said it has no legal authority to do what the department wants and that the list includes voters who are not even registered in Los Angeles County. Both the state and county cite the National Voter Registration Act, which bars systematic removal of voters within 90 days of a federal election.
Dean Logan, the county’s top election official, said the department “has chosen to litigate their unverified assertions of voting eligibility” and urged voters not to be scared off by litigation or misinformation, according to the Associated Press. Six voting and civil rights groups have asked to join the case on the state’s side.
There are also questions about the list’s accuracy. NPR reported on Tuesday that some people on the 20,000-name list appear to have been born in the United States. Nevada offers a cautionary example: officials there say a federal list of 185 suspected noncitizens turned out to be all lawful citizens. And earlier this month, as Stucci Media reported, a federal judge struck down the DOJ policy that checked state rolls against the SAVE citizenship database. Weber has argued the new demand may run into that ruling.
How Common Is Noncitizen Voting?
Noncitizen voting is a federal crime, and the people charged Monday will have their day in court. But nearly every study and audit of the issue has found it happens in tiny numbers. Rick Hasen, an election law professor at UCLA, told NPR that with more than 20 million registered voters in California, the allegations are “a drop in the bucket,” and that noncitizen voting has never been found to be a widespread problem. California cast more than 16 million votes in the last presidential election.
When noncitizens do end up registered, research often points to bureaucratic errors rather than a plot. This summer, a DMV software glitch in New Jersey registered more than 6,000 people who had told the state they were not citizens, NPR reported. The prosecutors’ response is that error does not excuse anyone who then signs a ballot envelope under penalty of perjury.
The real risk, according to critics, runs the other way. Hasen warned of three dangers: blocking eligible voters, eroding confidence in the count and using the issue as a pretext to challenge ballots after the election. A naturalized citizen whose ballot is set aside because a database had stale records is a voter too.
Why It Matters
For veterans and military families, the right to vote is not abstract. It is one of the things the uniform is supposed to protect. That cuts in two directions here. Every illegal ballot dilutes the vote of a citizen who earned it, and a sloppy list that sidelines lawful voters, including immigrants who serve in uniform and earn citizenship through the military, does the same damage from the other side.
For working Americans, the stakes are trust. California mails a ballot to every registered voter. If federal and state officials cannot agree on who is eligible, the loser in a close House race may refuse to accept the result, and the fight moves from the ballot box to the courthouse. Several California districts could help decide control of the House this year.
And for the country, this case is a test of who runs elections. The Constitution gives states the main job of conducting elections, while Congress can make laws governing federal races. A ruling for the Justice Department would give Washington a new lever inside a state’s ballot count. A ruling for California would leave the government with criminal charges, one case at a time, as its main tool. Either way, the outcome will shape how the next fight plays out, in California and everywhere else. For more on how these cases move through the courts, see our crime and investigation coverage.
What Happens Next
Three things to watch over the next two weeks:
- The emergency motion. A federal judge in Los Angeles must decide whether to order California to separate the mail ballots of people on the list. Any ruling is likely to be appealed fast.
- The 28 defendants. Each case will move through preliminary hearings and, if prosecutors proceed, indictments. Expect defense lawyers to test how the government connected each person to the list and whether they knew they were ineligible.
- The list itself. Independent checks by counties and reporters will keep chipping at the 20,000 figure. How many true noncitizens it holds, and how many citizens it caught by mistake, will shape public opinion more than any press conference.
Election Day is Nov. 3. California counts mail ballots for weeks after that, which means this fight is likely to outlast the election itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many people were charged in California’s noncitizen voting sweep?
The Justice Department charged 28 lawful permanent residents on Oct. 19, 2026, across all four federal judicial districts in California. Eleven were arrested that day.
What are the penalties for noncitizen voting?
Voting by an alien in a federal election is a misdemeanor with a maximum of one year in prison. Fraudulent voter registration and false statements on a naturalization application are felonies with a maximum of five years.
What is the 20,000-name list?
It is a list of registered California voters that the Department of Homeland Security says are likely noncitizens, built by comparing voter files with federal immigration and citizenship records. California says the government has not shown how the list was verified.
Is the government trying to throw out ballots?
The Justice Department says it wants ballots from people on the list set aside and not counted until their citizenship is verified. California and voting rights groups say that would amount to an illegal purge of voters before an election.
How common is noncitizen voting?
Studies and audits consistently find it is rare. The department says it has charged 113 noncitizens in 20 states over seven weeks, while California alone has more than 20 million registered voters.
Rocci J. Stucci is the founder and CEO of Stucci Media and host of The Rocci Stucci Show.
