LOS ANGELES — Federal authorities charged 28 people across California on Monday with federal election and immigration crimes, accusing them of fraudulently registering to vote in U.S. elections and, in most cases, casting ballots they were not entitled to cast, the Justice Department announced at a news conference in Los Angeles. Eleven of the 28 had been arrested by Monday, and officials said the remaining 17 would be taken into custody in the near future. All 28 are lawful permanent residents — green card holders — who may live and work in the United States but may not vote in federal elections, according to the Associated Press and Bloomberg Government.

The charges include fraudulent voter registration, unlawful voting, false claims of U.S. citizenship and, for some defendants, allegedly making false statements on naturalization paperwork. The Justice Department stressed that a complaint contains accusations only and that all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter told reporters the alleged voting "causes real damage to real elections and real damage to American citizens." First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bilal A. Essayli in Los Angeles said his office has charged 113 noncitizens across 20 states with illegal voting in the past seven weeks, according to reporting on the news conference. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin called the California sweep "Operation Protect the Vote" and said Homeland Security Investigations agents worked the case with the FBI.

Among those charged, prosecutors alleged that Omar Alexander Muñoz, 72, a citizen of Belize living in Commerce, fraudulently registered to vote in September 2019 by claiming he was a U.S. citizen, then voted in U.S. elections in 2020, twice in 2022 and in 2024, and allegedly lied on his naturalization application when he stated under oath that he had never claimed to be a U.S. citizen, according to the Justice Department as reported by MyNewsLA. The allegations against him have not been proven in court.

The arrests escalate a wider fight over California's voter rolls. The Justice Department says the 28 defendants were identified from a list of roughly 20,000 people it believes are noncitizens that it gave to California's secretary of state and the Los Angeles County registrar last week, and it has sued California seeking to stop officials from tallying mail ballots submitted by people on that list in the November election. California officials pushed back sharply: Attorney General Rob Bonta said there is no widespread voter fraud in California and called cases like these "a drop in the bucket" in a state with 23 million registered voters; Secretary of State Shirley Weber's office called the federal demands "outrageous" and based on vague, unsubstantiated allegations. In Los Angeles County, Supervisor Janice Hahn called the arrests "voter intimidation," and on Tuesday Supervisor Hilda Solis urged county voters to cast ballots early, saying voters should be able to vote "without interruption, interference, or intimidation from the federal government," MyNewsLA reported.

Why this matters for diaspora readers: a green card is not citizenship. Registering to vote in a federal election — even by mistake at a motor-vehicle office — can bring criminal charges and can seriously damage a later application for U.S. citizenship, which is why immigration lawyers routinely warn permanent residents never to register or vote until they have naturalized and taken the oath. Voters who are unsure of their status can check their registration with their county registrar before the November 3 midterms.

Sources: Associated Press (via The Floridian Press and Gorge News Center); Bloomberg Government; Los Angeles Times (via reporting on the arrests); MyNewsLA; U.S. Department of Justice announcement as reported by those outlets. All charges are allegations; the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.