On Nov. 2 the department announced charges involving 63 people nationwide, including 12 lawful permanent residents in two California federal districts. The defendants are presumed innocent.
The Justice Department on Nov. 2 announced charges involving 63 people in connection with what it described as illegal voting, fraudulent voter registration and related election crimes. The department said the cases include voting by noncitizens in federal elections, false claims of U.S. citizenship made in order to register or to vote, and the fraudulent submission of a voter registration application in another state. Four of the people charged nationwide, the department said, were in the country illegally; most of those named were lawful permanent residents, who have legal immigration status but are not U.S. citizens and may not vote in federal elections.
Attorney General Todd Blanche cast the announcement as part of a broader effort to enforce those laws and to restore public confidence in elections. “Today’s announcement marks the largest surge of voter-fraud arrests since President Trump returned to office,” Mr. Blanche said in the department’s statement. “These foreign nationals allegedly took advantage of the trust of the American people and flouted the laws that govern our nation’s elections. This Department of Justice will continue investigating and prosecuting voter fraud to restore confidence in our electoral system.”
The department said that in the previous nine weeks it had charged 195 noncitizens in 25 states with illegal voting and registration offenses, and that it had charged 239 people with voting-fraud-related offenses since the start of the administration. Federal law makes it a crime for a noncitizen to vote in a federal election and separately prohibits false statements about citizenship on voter-registration and naturalization forms. A complaint, indictment or information is an accusation. Every defendant named in this article is presumed innocent unless and until convicted in court.
Twelve of the people named on Nov. 2 were charged in California: six in the Central District, which includes Los Angeles, and six in the Eastern District, which includes Sacramento and much of the Central Valley. All 12 are lawful permanent residents, according to the department. The Nov. 2 announcement followed an Oct. 19 round of charges against 28 lawful permanent residents in California, brought by all four of the state’s U.S. attorney’s offices under the name “Operation Protect the Vote.”
This article examines the California cases announced on Nov. 2 charge by charge, as the Justice Department described them, and sets those accusations alongside what officials and court filings have said about a list of about 20,000 names the government says may belong to noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls. The Inquirer reviewed the department’s Nov. 2 and Oct. 19 announcements and contemporaneous reporting on the complaints and on a Nov. 2 news conference in Los Angeles, including an account by Sam Levin in The Guardian. Individual complaints were not independently retrieved from the public court record before publication. The article makes no claim about the outcome of any election.
What the department says it is trying to do
The legal theory the department has put forward is straightforward. Lawful permanent residents may live and work in the United States, but they are not citizens and are not permitted to vote in federal elections. Prosecutors say the people charged registered to vote by claiming to be citizens, in some cases voted, and in the Central District cases later denied that history on applications for naturalization. In the department’s telling, those acts are federal crimes, and prosecuting them deters fraud and protects the weight of each citizen’s ballot.
That rationale was set out in more detail on Oct. 19, when Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said, “Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen.” He said each of the 28 people charged that day appeared on a list of more than 20,000 “likely noncitizen registrants” that the federal government had provided to California, and that the state had declined to set aside their mail ballots. “Today’s charges show exactly what that refusal puts at risk,” Mr. McCotter said. “California must verify the citizenship of those more than 20,000 registrants before mail-in ballots are counted.”
Bill Essayli, then serving as the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said at the time, “California is mailing ballots to noncitizens, and they are refusing to comply with federal law, which makes it a crime for noncitizens to vote. The voting rights of American citizens must be protected.” John A. Condon, acting executive associate director of Homeland Security Investigations, said the agency would “continue to pursue those who knowingly violate federal law, while ensuring that every investigation is conducted fairly, thoroughly, and consistent with due process.”
State election officials have said the federal list and the methods used to compile it are unreliable, and that setting aside large numbers of ballots in the middle of an election would risk disenfranchising citizens. The Guardian reported that multiple judges rejected the department’s effort to force California to set aside about 20,000 ballots and that the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 2 rejected the administration’s appeals. County officials who received lists from the department have said those lists contained errors, The Guardian reported. An immigrants’ rights group, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, known as CHIRLA, said in a court filing that more than 40 percent of the people flagged as potentially fraudulent voters could not be found on the state’s voter rolls. The 20,000 names, The Guardian noted, represent a small fraction of California’s more than 23 million registered voters.
Asked about the list at the Nov. 2 news conference, Mr. Essayli said the government had used “third-party databases,” that the list “may not be 100 percent” accurate, and that prosecutors had a “very, very high confidence rate,” The Guardian reported. At a briefing during the first round of arrests in October, Mr. McCotter said, “There may be some names on there who, it turns out, ultimately are citizens. We’re not perfect, and that’s why we’ve asked California to cooperate with us.”
The Central District: six accusations of false statements on naturalization forms
The six people charged in the Central District of California each face a single count of making false statements on a naturalization application, according to the Justice Department and The Guardian’s account of the complaints. The complaints, written by Department of Homeland Security agents, allege that the defendants registered to vote and, in each case, cast at least one ballot, The Guardian reported. They are not charged in these cases with illegally voting itself; the charge described by prosecutors is the later statement, made under penalty of perjury on a naturalization form, that they had never claimed to be citizens and had never registered to vote. Prosecutors have said the charge carries a maximum of five years in prison. Five of the six had been arrested as of Mr. Essayli’s Nov. 2 news conference. They had not been formally indicted, and it was not clear whether any had obtained lawyers, The Guardian reported.
The department identified them as follows. The allegations are the government’s.
Sirgalahad Camua, 43, a Filipino national and lawful permanent resident, allegedly registered to vote in August 2009 by falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen and voted by mail in May 2020, November 2024 and June 2026. In May 2025, the department said, he filed paperwork seeking to become a naturalized citizen and, under penalty of perjury, falsely stated that he had neither claimed to be a citizen nor registered to vote. The Guardian reported that a 43-year-old defendant from the Philippines — matching Mr. Camua’s description in the department’s release — has been in the United States since 1992.
Krystel Capi Valle, 31, a Mexican national and lawful permanent resident, allegedly registered to vote in October 2022 by stating that she was a U.S. citizen and voted by mail in the November 2022 election. In June 2026, the department said, she swore under penalty of perjury on a naturalization form that she had never claimed to be a citizen and had never registered to vote.
Moria Dahan, 35, an Israeli national and lawful permanent resident, allegedly registered to vote and voted in person on Nov. 5, 2024, the date of the presidential election, after falsely claiming under penalty of perjury to be a U.S. citizen. On a naturalization form dated Nov. 6, 2025, the department said, she stated under penalty of perjury that she had never claimed to be a citizen and had never registered to vote.
Chad Goertz, 52, a Canadian citizen and lawful permanent resident, allegedly registered to vote in April 2018 and voted by mail in the November 2022 and November 2024 elections. In February 2026, the department said, he stated under oath on a naturalization form that he had never claimed to be a citizen and had never registered to vote. The Guardian reported that a 52-year-old defendant from Canada — matching Mr. Goertz’s description — was also accused of later seeking to cancel his registration, and that the complaint says he has been in the United States for more than 40 years.
Mahyar Nikzad, 35, an Iranian national and lawful permanent resident, allegedly registered to vote and checked a box on the registration form stating, “I am a U.S. citizen.” Records indicate he voted in the March 2024 and November 2024 elections, the department said. In February 2026, it said, he stated under penalty of perjury that he had never claimed to be a citizen and denied ever registering to vote.
Gilberto Ruiz, 46, a Mexican national and lawful permanent resident, allegedly registered to vote in July 2022 and voted by mail in November 2022, March 2024 and November 2024, falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen. In August 2025, the department said, he denied under penalty of perjury that he had ever claimed to be a citizen or registered to vote.
The department’s Nov. 2 release does not say, defendant by defendant, how each person was identified. Mr. Essayli told reporters that the newly charged defendants were on the 20,000-name list and that the cases supported the department’s effort to have ballots set aside, The Guardian reported.
The Eastern District: six accusations of illegal voting
The six people charged in the Eastern District of California were accused of illegally voting, the department said. Unlike the Central District cases, the Nov. 2 announcement describes the charge as illegal voting itself rather than as a false statement on a naturalization form. In the Eastern District cases announced on Oct. 19, the department described that offense as voting by an alien in a federal election, a misdemeanor carrying a statutory maximum of one year in prison. The Nov. 2 release does not separately state the statute or the maximum penalty for the six new Eastern District defendants.
Lorie Jane Alcala, 44, a Filipino national and lawful permanent resident, has been charged with illegally voting. The department said she voted in the November 2024 presidential election.
Edith San Pedro Carter, 59, a Filipino national and lawful permanent resident, has been charged with illegally voting in the November 2024 presidential election.
Maria Joao Bettencourt, 49, a Portuguese national and lawful permanent resident, has been charged with illegally voting in the November 2024 presidential election.
Rosa Bento Silva Anderson, 26, a Portuguese national and lawful permanent resident, has been charged with illegally voting in the November 2024 presidential election.
Janelyn Stewart, 38, a Filipino national and lawful permanent resident, has been charged with illegally voting in the November 2024 presidential election.
Meryll Joy Quirong Costi, 36, a Filipino national and lawful permanent resident, has been charged with illegally voting in the November 2024 presidential election and in the November 2022 midterm election. She is the only one of the six whom the department accused of voting in more than one election.
The Nov. 2 announcement does not list the counties where the six are said to have registered or voted, the years they registered, whether they have been arrested, whether they have counsel, or the dates of any upcoming hearings. It also does not say how investigators identified each person. Those details, if they appear in the complaints, were not available in the department’s public summary.
The earlier California cases
The Oct. 19 announcement charged 28 lawful permanent residents and said federal agents had arrested 11 of them that day. The charges, the department said, included making false statements in a naturalization application and, in some cases, fraudulent voter registration, both described as felonies carrying a maximum of five years in federal prison. The Eastern District defendants in that round were charged with voting by an alien, the misdemeanor described above.
The department named 13 defendants in the Central District, six in the Eastern District, five in the Northern District — including one San Francisco resident, Maribel del Carmen Garcés Barriga, 62, an Ecuadoran national — and four in the Southern District. It said the defendants had “knowingly and willfully lied under oath in their voter registration applications that they were U.S. citizens,” that many had voted, and that they later denied that history in naturalization paperwork. Those remain accusations. On Oct. 13, the department said, it gave California a list of the 28 people so their vote-by-mail ballots could be set aside until their citizenship was confirmed. California declined, the department said, and the United States sued — part of the broader effort to set aside about 20,000 ballots that The Guardian reported trial judges and then the Supreme Court declined to advance.
A separate court ruling about the Los Angeles prosecutor
The California cases have been announced in public by Mr. Essayli, among others. A federal judge ruled last week that Mr. Essayli is “unlawfully” serving as the head of the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles because he was not formally appointed and confirmed by the Senate, The Guardian reported, and the Justice Department is appealing that ruling. The Associated Press separately reported the decision under the headline that a judge had ruled Mr. Essayli “isn’t legally serving as federal prosecutor in LA.” The characterization that he is unlawfully serving is the court’s, not this newspaper’s. The appeal means the question of his authority remains before higher courts.
Critics of the prosecutions, including Democrats quoted by The Guardian, have said the timing — charges announced the day before the midterm election, accompanied in October by on-camera arrests — was intended to sow doubt about the election and to create an impression that noncitizen voting is widespread. Former prosecutors and defense lawyers told The Guardian it was unusual to bring such cases in the middle of an election and to present arrests so publicly. The Guardian also reported that experts say noncitizen voting is rare and that when noncitizens appear on the rolls it is often the result of confusion. The department’s stated position, set out by Mr. Blanche, Mr. McCotter and Mr. Essayli, is that the cases enforce existing criminal statutes, that illegal votes cancel lawful ones, and that the prosecutions are meant to protect electoral integrity and deter fraud.
Those are competing accounts of the same charging documents. As summarized by the department, the documents accuse 12 people in two California districts of specific false statements or of illegal voting in named elections. The defendants have not been convicted. Their names appear here as they appear in the Justice Department’s public announcements.
Anjali Venkatram covers national news and the federal policies, court rulings and trends that reach California, for National News. More from Anjali Venkatram
