Federal officials charge 28 in California noncitizen voting case

Federal authorities have charged 28 people across California with illegally registering to vote or casting ballots in federal elections despite not being U.S. citizens — escalating an election battle between the state and the Trump administration just weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms.

Authorities said 11 of the 28 were arrested as of Monday morning and that the 17 others "will be in custody in the near future." All are lawful permanent residents of the U.S.; none are undocumented immigrants. According to officials, 21 of the 28 are suspected of casting votes, some in multiple elections. Some are also charged with lying about registering or voting on their naturalization paperwork.

The 28 charged individuals come from across California's federal districts — 13 from the Central District (Los Angeles, Long Beach, Anaheim and surrounding cities), five from the Northern District, four from the Southern District and six from the Eastern District. They hail from a mix of nations including Belize, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India and Mexico.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter cast the arrests as proof that California voter rolls are corrupted, saying "This Department of Justice will not look the other way while non-citizens vote in federal elections. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for California and L.A. County."

State and local officials pushed back sharply. Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn referred to the arrests as "voter intimidation and a blatant attempt to undermine trust in our midterm elections." California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office said the 28 individuals "represent a tiny fraction" of California's 23 million registered voters and that the Trump administration has not shown evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Election experts have also questioned the numbers. David Becker of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research noted that 28 alleged noncitizens represent ".0001% of California voters," and that charging 28 people days after the Justice Department flagged 20,000 "raises serious questions as to whether DOJ has any evidence at all supporting their claims on the other 19,972 on their list." UCLA law professor Rick Hasen similarly described the federal data as "unreliable."

The state of California is already being sued by the Justice Department after Secretary of State Shirley Weber and L.A. County Registrar Dean Logan refused a 48-hour demand to set aside the ballots of about 20,000 voters the DOJ labeled "likely noncitizens." Officials argued the Justice Department had provided no proof the voters were ineligible and had presented similar and inaccurate claims in other states — notably Nevada, where all 185 individuals the federal government held "high confidence" were noncitizens were ultimately found to be citizens.

McCotter said the administration has charged 113 people across 20 states with voting-related crimes in the last seven weeks. More than 154 million people voted nationally in the 2024 presidential election.

Reporting by the Los Angeles Times. Read the original report: Federal officials charge 28 in California noncitizen voting case.