Federal agents arrested more than two dozen noncitizens across California Monday for fraudulently registering to vote and casting illegal ballots — the largest voter fraud bust in the state's history and the latest evidence that the establishment's claim that noncitizen voting never happens is a lie.
The DOJ's "Operation Protect the Vote" netted 28 green card holders who prosecutors say lied under oath about their citizenship to register, then voted in real elections. Twenty-one of the 28 actually cast ballots, according to the Justice Department. Eleven are already in custody. The charges — making false statements on naturalization applications and fraudulent voter registration — carry up to five years in prison.
The arrests come days after the DOJ sued California to block the state from counting ballots cast by suspected noncitizens in next month's midterms. The feds gave California officials a list of more than 20,000 registered voters they believe are likely noncitizens who were mailed ballots. DHS originally claimed the number was 190,000 before revising it downward — while refusing to explain its methodology.
The cases are concrete. Alexander Muñoz, 72, a Belizean national, registered to vote in 2019 claiming U.S. citizenship, then voted in 2020, twice in 2022, and again in 2024, according to the New York Post. He also lied on his naturalization application. Muñoz has prior U.S. convictions for grand theft and narcotics possession. José Probitsado Amaro, 51, a Filipino citizen, fraudulently registered and voted in November 2024. Moe Thida Lwin, 57, a Myanmar national, registered and voted in 2024.
LA's top federal prosecutor Bill Essayli didn't mince words: "Today's arrests confirm what we suspected and what we put California on notice for: Noncitizens are voting in California elections which is unconstitutional and illegal." Essayli said the state relies on mere attestation of citizenship with no documentation requirement, leaving the rolls wide open. "There's a lot of misinformation and disinformation being spread by the deceivers up there in Sacramento," he said. "The governor and the Secretary of State, and the Attorney General. They're lying."
California officials are circling the wagons. Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a Democrat, called the DOJ's demands "outrageous" and accused federal officials of making "vague and unsubstantiated allegations." LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn called the arrests "voter intimidation and a blatant attempt to undermine trust in our midterm elections." Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter warned county officials that facilitating noncitizen voting is itself a federal crime. LA County Registrar Dean Logan said his office is focused on running a fair election and the matter should be settled in court.
The Guardian framed the crackdown as a Trump administration strategy to "sow doubt" in the midterms and emphasized that noncitizen voting is "extremely rare." ABC7 noted the same rarity claim while reporting the operation straight. The Post led with the scale of the bust and the specific arrest details.
Here's the arithmetic the establishment doesn't want to examine: DOJ has charged roughly 90 people with election misconduct this year, including 50 alleged noncitizen voters, according to ABC7. That's 50 caught nationwide. The feds identified 20,000 likely noncitizens on California's rolls alone — in a state with 23.1 million registered voters. California asks for no proof of citizenship to register. If 28 people got caught in one operation in one state, the question isn't whether it's happening. The question is how many thousands are getting away with it in a system designed to fail.
Weber's office says treating those 20,000 names as ineligible until proven otherwise would violate federal law prohibiting systematic voter roll purges close to an election. The same law, in other words, that prevents cleanup before elections is now the shield blocking accountability when noncitizens are caught voting after them.
