A Kerman man accused by federal prosecutors of voting in American elections as a noncitizen pleaded not guilty in a Fresno courtroom on Wednesday afternoon, October 28, in the first court test of a voting case that has drawn national attention to Fresno County. Camilo Giles Jimenez, 51, a Mexican national living in Kerman, appeared at the Robert E. Coyle United States Courthouse in downtown Fresno with his wife and a court-appointed attorney, according to courtroom reporting by Fresno-based journalist David Taub. Giles Jimenez did not comment on the charge, other than to nod when asked whether he was from Mexico. Leaving the hearing, he said only: "We're good."
Giles Jimenez is one of three Fresno County residents charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with voting by an alien under 18 U.S.C. § 611, the federal law that prohibits a noncitizen from voting in a federal election. The other two are Rony de Jesus Sicaja, 38, a Guatemalan national living in Fresno, and Maricela Nazarin Gonzalez, 43, a Mexican national living in Clovis. According to the reporting, two of the three defendants have now appeared in court and pleaded not guilty. The charges are allegations only; none of the three has been convicted of anything.
The case moved quickly to Wednesday's plea. Giles Jimenez surrendered to authorities and was arrested on October 22. He made his initial court appearance the same day but did not enter a plea, and a magistrate judge released him from custody. Wednesday's hearing was his arraignment, where the not-guilty plea formally puts the case on a trial track in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.
What the complaints allege
Federal prosecutors allege that Giles Jimenez voted by mail in three elections in Fresno County: the March 2024 primary, the November 2024 general election and the June 2, 2026 primary. According to a summary of the criminal complaint, he allegedly told agents that he registered to vote after receiving his green card, knowing that he was not a U.S. citizen — an allegation the defence has not admitted and which the government would have to prove at trial, since knowledge matters under the statute.
The complaints against the other two Fresno County defendants follow a similar pattern, prosecutors say. Gonzalez allegedly registered while claiming citizenship and voted in 2022, twice in 2024 and again in 2025. Sicaja allegedly registered in 2017 and voted in the June 2022 primary and the 2024 general election. All three are described in the Justice Department's announcement as lawful permanent residents — green-card holders who live in the United States legally but are not permitted to vote in federal elections.
The cases were built over months. FBI Special Agent Britton Wallace wrote affidavits supporting the arrest warrants for all three defendants, and U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank J. Singer signed the criminal complaints. In September, the FBI served grand jury subpoenas on the California Secretary of State, the Fresno County Registrar of Voters and the state Department of Motor Vehicles, seeking voter registration, voting history and address information. Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, provided the FBI with the three defendants' immigration files, known as A-files.
Part of a national wave of voting charges
The Fresno County cases, first announced when the Justice Department charged dozens of noncitizens across five states earlier this month, are part of a coordinated national announcement in which prosecutors charged 48 noncitizens with illegally registering, voting or lying about their voting histories. Twenty-eight of the defendants are in California, under an effort prosecutors call Operation Protect the Vote. Forty-seven of the 48 people charged nationally are lawful permanent residents, according to the department's case summaries — not people in the country illegally.
The Eastern District of California cases also include a defendant of direct interest to South Asian readers: Kamlesh Navnitlal Shah, 67, an Indian national living in Sacramento, is accused of registering to vote, falsely claiming citizenship, and voting on Election Day in November 2024. Another Eastern District defendant, Giezell Viduya Adawag, 41, of Vacaville, faces similar allegations. "Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen," Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said in announcing the California charges.
The wider fight over California's voter rolls
Wednesday's plea landed on the same day the larger legal war over California's rolls escalated. In a separate case in Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter on Wednesday declined the Justice Department's request to block California from counting ballots from about 20,000 voters the government says are likely noncitizens, and the department immediately appealed. Fresno County itself received a federal letter late last week giving county elections officials 48 hours to begin identifying suspected noncitizens among 670 named registered voters and to segregate their ballots — a demand Fresno County Registrar of Voters James Kus confirmed receiving but has not publicly said the county will meet.
Why this matters in the Central Valley
Fresno County — Fresno, Clovis and Kerman included — is home to one of California's largest Punjabi and wider immigrant communities, and thousands of local green-card holders are following these cases closely. The legal line is unforgiving: a permanent resident who registers or votes in a federal election commits a federal crime even if it happens through confusion at a DMV counter or on a form, and a conviction can carry immigration consequences far beyond the one-year maximum prison term. Prosecutors, for their part, say the cases are about protecting the weight of citizens' votes. A not-guilty plea means the government must now prove, defendant by defendant, both the voting and the defendant's knowledge and status.
What happens next
The three Fresno County cases will proceed separately in federal court in Fresno, with future hearings and possible trial dates to be set; the third defendant's plea status will be confirmed as that case is called. Separately, the Justice Department's appeal in the 20,000-ballot case goes to the Ninth Circuit, where the department says it will seek emergency relief while ballots for the November 3 midterm elections continue to be processed. Awaaz Punjab will follow both tracks — the individual cases in Fresno and the statewide fight over the rolls.