Federal prosecutors in California filed a fresh round of election charges on Monday, November 2 — the day before the midterm elections — charging twelve more noncitizens in two separate announcements, five of them arrested the same day, while the Justice Department separately asked the U.S. Supreme Court to force California to set aside roughly 20,000 disputed mail ballots. The charges are a new development in “Operation Protect the Vote,” the federal sweep that began with 28 California defendants on October 19, which Awaaz Punjab reported at the time; Monday's filings, arrests and Supreme Court move are the latest escalation of that fight, not a repeat of it.

Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California, Nov 2, 2026

Los Angeles: six charged with lying on naturalization forms; five arrested Monday

In the Central District, prosecutors charged six additional foreign nationals living in Los Angeles County's Antelope and San Fernando valleys with making false statements on their naturalization applications — alleging that each illegally registered to vote and voted, and later swore under penalty of perjury that they had never claimed to be U.S. citizens and never registered. The defendants are: Sirgalahad Camua, 43, a citizen of the Philippines living in Palmdale; Krystel Capi Valle, 31, a Mexican national living in Palmdale; Moria Dahan, 35, an Israeli national living in West Hills; Chad Goertz, 52, a Canadian citizen living in Agua Dulce; Mahyar Nikzad, 35, an Iranian national living in Canoga Park; and Gilberto Ruiz, 46, a citizen of Mexico living in Palmdale. Five of the six — Camua, Capi Valle, Dahan, Goertz and Nikzad — were arrested Monday and scheduled to make initial appearances that afternoon in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

The affidavits allege long timelines. Prosecutors say Camua registered in August 2009 by falsely claiming citizenship, voted by mail in May 2020, November 2024 and June 2026, then denied all of it on a naturalization filing in May 2025. Goertz is alleged to have registered in April 2018 and voted by mail in November 2022 and November 2024 before denying it under oath in February 2026; Ruiz allegedly voted by mail in three elections — November 2022, March 2024 and November 2024 — and denied everything in August 2025. Every defendant in the operation is a lawful permanent resident — a green-card holder — the department said; green-card holders may live and work in the United States permanently but are not citizens and may not register or vote in U.S. elections. If convicted, each of the six faces a statutory maximum of five years in federal prison. The cases were investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Wheat and Minjae Kim.

“Today, my office announces criminal charges against six additional noncitizens for unlawfully registering and voting in our elections,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “We have now charged 34 defendants in Operation Protect the Vote, and every one of their names was on the list we provided to California officials. There are thousands of suspected noncitizens on California's voter rolls, and we renew our request for California to expeditiously work with us to verify the citizenship of those casting ballots in elections. Every illegal vote cast and counted cancels the legitimate vote of an American citizen.” Erin Burke, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles, said HSI “will follow the evidence wherever it leads,” and San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow said his office “will independently investigate every credible allegation of illegal voting… while safeguarding the rights of every accused person.”

Central Valley: six more charged with illegally voting, in counties at the heart of the diaspora

The same day, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California announced criminal complaints charging six other noncitizens with illegally voting in the November 5, 2024 presidential election — in Fresno, Kings, Sacramento, Solano, Stanislaus and Tulare counties, the Central Valley corridor where much of California's Punjabi community lives and works. They are: Lorie Jane Alcala, 44, a Philippine national living in Hanford; Edith San Pedro Carter, 59, a Philippine national living in Fresno; Maria Joao Bettencourt, 49, a Portuguese national living in Visalia; Rosa Bento Silva Anderson, 26, a Portuguese national living in Turlock; Janelyn Stewart, 38, a Philippine national living in Vallejo; and Meryll Joy Quirong Costi, 36, a Philippine national living in Sacramento, who is alleged to have voted in both the 2024 presidential election and the 2022 midterms. Alcala and Carter made initial appearances on October 30; Bettencourt and Anderson were due in federal court in Fresno at 2:00 p.m. on November 2, and Costi in Sacramento at 2:00 p.m. the same day. The Eastern District charge — voting by a noncitizen — carries a maximum of one year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. The FBI and HSI investigated; Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua Banister and Kevin Khasigian are prosecuting.

Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of California, Nov 2, 2026

Simultaneously: DOJ takes the 20,000-ballot fight to the Supreme Court

The new charges landed alongside the sharpest legal move yet in the parallel dispute over California's voter rolls. On Monday the Justice Department asked the U.S. Supreme Court to force California to set aside thousands of disputed ballots — roughly 20,000 mail ballots from voters the department says are likely noncitizens, identified by matching state rolls against immigration and commercial databases. The department sued California and Los Angeles County on October 15. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter rejected its emergency request in a 26-page ruling, and a Ninth Circuit panel then turned away the department's emergency appeal by 2-1, with the majority faulting in part the department's own late filing; Judge Patrick Bumatay dissented. Monday's filing moves the question to the Supreme Court on the eve of the election. An analysis by data scientists at UCLA's Voting Rights Project, cited in public-radio reporting of the filing, found that 42% of the names on the DOJ's list do not appear on California's voter roll at all.

Nationally, the department said Monday it had charged 63 individuals with election-related crimes in the latest announcement, 195 noncitizens across 25 states in the last nine weeks, and 239 people with voting-fraud-related offences since the administration began. “Today's announcement marks the largest surge of voter-fraud arrests since President Trump returned to office,” said Attorney General Todd Blanche. All of Monday's California charges are allegations contained in criminal complaints; every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The other side, and the stakes for immigrant voters

California officials have pushed back from the start. When the first 28 were charged on October 19, Attorney General Rob Bonta said there is no widespread voter fraud in California and that one-off cases are “a drop in the bucket” in a state with 23 million registered voters, and the Associated Press has noted that research consistently shows noncitizen voting is extremely rare and has not been shown to change election outcomes. Defendants and families in the October cases told reporters many had no recollection or intention of registering. For green-card holders — including the large Punjabi permanent-resident community in the Central Valley — the practical warning inside Monday's filings is severe and specific: prosecutors allege the gravest offence was not the ballot itself but the later sworn denial on a naturalization form. A false claim to citizenship, and a false denial of it afterwards, can each carry prison time and can destroy a citizenship application; anyone unsure of their registration status should check it and take legal advice before signing any federal form.

What happens next

The five arrested Los Angeles defendants were due before a federal judge Monday afternoon; the Eastern District defendants have initial appearances in Fresno and Sacramento. Arraignments and plea proceedings will follow in the coming weeks. The Supreme Court could act on the emergency ballot application at any time — before, during or after Tuesday's vote — and its decision will determine whether the roughly 20,000 flagged ballots are segregated while citizenship is checked or counted under California's normal procedures. Polls close across California on Tuesday night, November 3, with the presidency of neither chamber at stake in Sacramento but control of Congress — and the future of this enforcement campaign — very much on the ballot.