A federal jury in Fort Worth, Texas, has convicted Khalwinder Singh Bhengura, an Indian national living in Texas as a green-card holder, of voting by an alien in a federal election and of making a false claim of United States citizenship in order to register to vote, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas announced. The verdict, returned on Tuesday, October 27, makes Bhengura one of the most closely watched convictions in the federal government's widening campaign against noncitizen voting — a campaign that has particular weight for immigrant communities, because the line between a lawful permanent resident and a citizen is exactly where this case was fought.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Northern District of Texas
The case was tried over two days before U.S. District Judge Mark T. Pittman in Fort Worth. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the jury deliberated for several hours before returning guilty verdicts on both counts on October 27. Bhengura has not yet been sentenced; sentencing is set for February 11, 2027, before Judge Pittman.
How the registration happened, according to the evidence at trial
According to evidence presented at trial and summarised by prosecutors, Bhengura, a citizen of India, became a lawful permanent resident of the United States on June 29, 2022. He is not a U.S. citizen and, prosecutors said, has never applied for citizenship. On August 1, 2024, he applied for a Texas driver licence in Tarrant County. In that application, he checked boxes stating that he was a U.S. citizen and that he wished to register to vote. Based on that application, he was registered to vote in Texas. Reporting on the original indictment in September also said prosecutors alleged he had falsely claimed citizenship when registering to vote in January 2024, before repeating the claim on the driver-licence application in August.
On November 5, 2024, Bhengura voted in person at the East Library and Recreation Center in Arlington, Texas, in the general election — an election that included races for President, Vice President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, prosecutors said. Federal law reserves voting in federal elections to U.S. citizens; a green card, however long it has been held, does not carry the right to vote in those elections.
What the U.S. Attorney said
"Voting in our national elections is reserved for US citizens," U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said in the announcement. "Every unlawful vote undermines the voices of eligible citizens, and this office will hold accountable anyone who undermines our elections. This verdict reflects the jury's careful consideration of the evidence and our commitment to protecting the integrity of the electoral process in North Texas." At the charging stage, reporting on the indictment said Bhengura later admitted he knew he was not a citizen when he registered and voted; the jury's guilty verdicts mean the panel accepted the prosecution's account beyond a reasonable doubt.
The penalties he now faces
Bhengura faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for the false claim of citizenship in order to register to vote, and up to one year in prison and a maximum fine of $100,000 for voting by an alien in a federal election, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He could also face immigration penalties, including removal from the United States after he serves any term of imprisonment. The actual sentence will be decided by Judge Pittman on February 11, 2027.
One case inside a much wider North Texas and national crackdown
Bhengura's case did not begin alone. In September, federal prosecutors in North Texas charged seven noncitizens in an election-integrity investigation in Tarrant County — nationals of India, Nigeria, Mexico and the Democratic Republic of Congo among them — most accused of falsely claiming citizenship to register and then voting in the November 2024 election; two of the ballots in that group were provisional and were rejected, while the others went through. The investigation was conducted by the HSI Dallas field office, with assistance from the Election Integrity Unit of the Texas Attorney General's Office and the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Capoccia and Colin Duffy prosecuted Bhengura's case. Separately, the Department of Homeland Security announced on October 28 a nationwide set of arrests of noncitizens in investigations involving alleged illegal voting, fraudulent registration and false claims of citizenship — a sign that cases of this kind will keep coming.
Why this matters for diaspora readers in Texas and beyond
For the large Punjabi and wider South Asian community in Texas — in Arlington, Fort Worth, Houston, Dallas and the suburbs between them — the practical lesson of this verdict is direct. A driver-licence counter is where many new residents meet the voter-registration system, and checking the citizenship box on that form, whether by confusion or by choice, is itself a federal offence for a noncitizen, even before any ballot is cast. Lawful permanent residents who discover they were registered in error are generally advised by immigration lawyers to cancel the registration in writing and to take legal advice before filing any naturalisation application, because a false claim to citizenship can carry immigration consequences far heavier than the criminal sentence itself. None of that is decided in this case yet: what happens next is the February 11, 2027 sentencing, and any immigration proceedings would follow the criminal case.