An Australian national was arrested at a federal courthouse in New Orleans after casting ballots in two federal elections she had no right to participate in — and the people who run this country still insist noncitizen voting is a fantasy.
Denise Nataly Migliore, a 51-year-old lawful permanent resident, was indicted June 11 on four counts of making false statements to register to vote and illegal voting, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Prosecutors say she knowingly lied about her citizenship in October 2022 and October 2024 to register, then cast ballots both Novembers. Homeland Security Investigations arrested her July 1 at the federal courthouse. She faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis didn't mince words: "Our message to aliens who vote in American elections is clear: we will find you, arrest you, and you will face the consequences, including criminal charges and deportation. Only Americans should be electing American leaders."
This is not an isolated case. The Daily Caller reported that just days earlier, DOJ announced charges against Marian Charitun, a 62-year-old Slovakian national, for illegally voting in New Jersey's 2022 midterms and making false statements on his citizenship application. Two noncitizens, two states, two elections — and these are just the ones who got caught.
Senators Mike Lee and Rand Paul both pointed to the arrests as proof the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register in federal elections, is long overdue. Lee put it plainly: if every vote counts, every illegal vote cancels out a real American citizen's ballot.
The New York Post covered the Migliore arrest as a straight crime story — facts, charges, maximum penalties. Clean but contained. The Daily Caller placed it in the broader pattern, noting the New Jersey case and the legislative push. Breitbart trained its fire on the institutional left's response: National Nurses United executive director Puneet Maharaj took the Fourth of July to lament ICE raids and claim "attacks on voting rights" — equating enforcement against noncitizen voting with voter suppression. NNU, which boasts 225,000 members whose dues fund this advocacy, previously rallied alongside Sen. Ed Markey and former Rep. Cori Bush to demand ICE be abolished, calling it a "lawless paramilitary force." They offered no evidence for that claim. Breitbart noted that 70% of ICE arrests target illegal immigrants already charged with or convicted of crimes.
Here is the fault line. One side catches noncitizens voting and wants to stop it. The other side calls enforcement itself the crime. The establishment media buries the pattern; the activist class rebrands it as repression. Meanwhile, American citizens go to the polls wondering whether their vote means anything at all.
How many noncitizens vote and simply aren't caught? That's the question no one in power wants answered.
