Federal agents charged 28 suspects in a series of California voter fraud cases on Monday, days after the Justice Department sued the state and warned election officials they could face legal consequences if they counted ballots cast by people who federal agencies identified as suspected noncitizens.
Under an operation dubbed “Protect the Vote,” authorities sought more than two dozen foreign nationals charged with fraudulently registering to vote in U.S. elections. Prosecutors allege most of them cast ballots, and at least 11 suspects were arrested Monday morning.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced on X that more arrests tied to alleged voter fraud were made Monday morning.
“Protecting American elections from criminal interference remains a top priority” of the FBI, Patel wrote. “We will use every legal resource to hold those who violate our election laws accountable and defend every American citizen’s constitutional right to vote.” He thanked the Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department.
One arrest came around 6 a.m., when Homeland Security Investigations agents went to the Commerce home of Omar Alexander Muñoz, 72, a Belizean national. Muñoz emerged after agents called for him to come outside and was taken into custody.
Investigators allege Muñoz falsely claimed U.S. citizenship when he registered to vote in September 2019, then voted in the 2020 election, twice in 2022, and again in 2024. He is also accused of lying on his naturalization application by stating under oath that he had never claimed to be a U.S. citizen. He faces felony charges, including making false statements on a naturalization application.
All 28 suspects are lawful permanent residents or green card holders.
The arrests came after a week of escalating conflict between the Trump administration and California over voter eligibility. On Thursday, the Justice Department sued the state after California officials did not meet a federal demand to review a password-protected drive containing about 20,000 names the DOJ says are likely noncitizens registered to vote.
The federal government had given California officials 48 hours to review the list, which it said identified people who had been sent mail ballots. The Justice Department asked the state to withhold ballots from listed individuals until their citizenship could be verified. California officials questioned the reliability of the data and said eligibility decisions must be based on verifiable information.
In a separate letter sent Friday and made public Monday, acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter warned Los Angeles County officials that knowingly tabulating ballots cast by people identified by federal agencies as noncitizens could expose those officials to criminal investigation and prosecution. The letter was sent to the Los Angeles County Counsel’s Office and was copied to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber (D) and County Registrar Dean Logan.
“Noncitizen voting in a federal election is a federal crime — and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally unlawful,” McCotter wrote in the two-page letter sent to election officials.
Los Angeles County’s top federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli, said Monday’s cases supported the administration’s warnings to California.
“Today’s arrests confirm what we suspected and what we put California on notice for: Noncitizens are voting in California elections which is unconstitutional and illegal,” he said.
California officials have pushed back against the federal effort. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called the lawsuit an attempt to interfere with the state’s election process, writing on X that courts had made clear the federal government has no role in running state elections.
Attorney General Todd Blanche has defended the lawsuit, saying, “State-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America.” If the state is found responsible in court, he added, “California will have seriously undermined confidence in our electoral system.”
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Earlier Monday, Logan said his office remained focused on conducting a fair and secure election and that the department’s claims should be addressed in court. He said the Justice Department had chosen to litigate what he called “unverified assertions of voting eligibility.”
Before Monday, DOJ figures showed about 90 people this year have been charged for various types of election misconduct, including 50 accused of voting as noncitizens. Election officials and researchers have found that noncitizen voting is rare, and a federal claim earlier this year that Nevada had 1,500 noncitizen voters resulted in no confirmed noncitizens after the state reviewed the names.