10
Loading video...
By Billal Rahman and Dan Gooding
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Six lawful permanent residents and a Mexican national who had been ordered removed from the United States have been charged with illegally voting in federal elections, attempting to vote, or falsely claiming U.S. citizenship, federal prosecutors in Texas announced Tuesday.
The charges come as the Trump administration expands its focus on election integrity and noncitizen voting ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Administration officials say increased enforcement is needed to safeguard elections, while voting rights advocates and election experts have long maintained that documented cases of noncitizen voting are relatively rare; the Heritage Foundation's election-fraud database recorded only 24 instances of noncitizen voting from 2003 through 2023, according to a Reuters review.
Read More on News
The Texas Secretary of State's Office also said Tuesday that out of a group of roughly 2,700 potential noncitizen voters, 578 had been found to be American, forcing them to be reinstated on voter rolls.
...
Texas Noncitizen Voters Charged: What We Know
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas said six defendants were indicted September 10 and a seventh was charged by criminal complaint the following day. Authorities said all seven defendants had been arrested or had surrendered to authorities by Tuesday.
The defendants include six green card holders from Nigeria, Mexico, India, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, along with a Mexican national who had already been ordered removed from the country, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said. Prosecutors allege the cases involve voting in the 2018 or 2024 elections, attempting to vote through provisional ballots, or making false statements regarding citizenship status on government forms.
Among those charged is Helen Sayen Adams, a 67-year-old Nigerian citizen and green card holder whom prosecutors allege falsely claimed U.S. citizenship on a Texas voter registration application before voting in the November 2024 election in Tarrant County. Rocio Thrasher, a 38-year-old Mexican citizen and lawful permanent resident, is accused of making a similar false claim when registering to vote before casting a ballot in the same election.
Authorities also charged Khalwinder Singh Bhengura, a 69-year-old Indian citizen and lawful permanent resident, alleging he falsely claimed U.S. citizenship when registering to vote and later on a Texas driver's license application before voting in the 2024 election.
Celestin Katubadi, a 20-year-old citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Carlos Salas Barrios, a 41-year-old Mexican citizen, are accused of casting provisional ballots in the 2024 election despite not being eligible to vote. Prosecutors noted that both ballots were ultimately rejected by election officials.
Another defendant, Joshua Nmelichukwu Akpom, a Nigerian citizen and lawful permanent resident since 2016, is charged with making false statements during the naturalization process. Prosecutors allege he denied previously registering to vote or voting despite records showing he registered in 2017 and cast a ballot in the 2018 election. Authorities said the underlying voting allegation fell outside the statute of limitations.
Moises Anwar Arellano-Alba, a Mexican national whom immigration authorities said was ordered removed from the United States in July, is accused of falsely claiming U.S. citizenship on a Texas driver's license application and voting in the 2024 election in Dallas County. Prosecutors said he surrendered to federal authorities after initially being sought as a fugitive.
U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said the cases stem from a federal election integrity investigation involving the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Texas Attorney General's Office and local prosecutors.
Texas Probe Flags US Citizens
Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden said Tuesday that his office had referred 117 cases to Attorney General Ken Paxton's office to be investigated for potential noncitizen voting.
That number came from an effort to check all 18 million registered Texas voters using the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to verify voter eligibility. Overall, 2,724 potential noncitizens were flagged, Howden said.
Texas officials then began working together to check these records, with the number of potential immigrant voters "narrowed" down. More than 550 voters who had seen their eligibility revoked were ultimately determined to be U.S. citizens.
While those voters have been returned to voter rolls, the disconnect between different records at state and federal levels highlights an issue investigators have repeatedly come up against—not all records are synchronized and kept up to date.
“By law and according to our Constitution, citizenship is a requirement to vote in Texas, and we have a duty to ensure that only eligible voters participate in our elections,” Howden said in a press release. “We also have a responsibility to make sure eligible citizens can exercise their right to vote, which is why we are taking great care with this data and conducting additional layers of due diligence.”
...
The Wider Trump Admin Crackdown
The Texas cases are the latest in a series of prosecutions and immigration enforcement actions tied to allegations of noncitizen voting. Last week, the Department of Homeland Security announced the arrest of Anthony Tyrone Higgs, a Bahamian national and lawful permanent resident living in Georgia, after Homeland Security Investigations said it determined he had illegally voted in the 2020 election.
DHS said Higgs had prior criminal convictions for armed robbery, domestic violence, and assault on a police officer, and had illegally voted in past elections. The agency said Higgs has been placed in removal proceedings.
The Texas Secretary of State's office said it has referred 117 potential cases of noncitizen voting to the Texas Attorney General's office for investigation. State officials also said that of voters flagged by a federal database as possible noncitizens last year, 578 were later confirmed to be U.S. citizens after further review.
The six cases represent a small fraction of Texas voters. State election data show that more than 11.4 million ballots were cast in the November 2024 general election.
The cases involve federal elections, where voting by noncitizens is prohibited nationwide. Some jurisdictions, however, permit noncitizens to participate in certain local elections, including the District of Columbia and a limited number of municipalities in California, Maryland and Vermont.
"Federal elections belong to American citizens—period," U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said in a press release. "When individuals who are not citizens cast ballots or falsely claim citizenship, they violate federal law, undermine the integrity of our electoral process and erode the public’s confidence in the fairness of our elections. These charges send a clear message: We will enforce the law. We will hold offenders accountable. And we will safeguard the voting process for the citizens it is meant to serve."
"Election integrity is a national security priority, and HSI will continue working with our federal, state, and local partners to investigate violations that threaten public confidence in our electoral process," HSI Dallas acting Deputy Special Agent in Charge Judy Pardo said in a news release.
Related Story
Republican’s 10-Month Probe for Non-Citizen Votes Leads to 4 Criminal Cases
What Happens Next
The defendants will now proceed through the federal criminal process, beginning with arraignment and other pretrial proceedings; the six people indicted on September 10 will face the charges in U.S. District Court, while the seventh, charged by criminal complaint on September 11, will proceed through the complaint and charging process.
The Justice Department has not announced trial dates yet. If convicted, the alleged voting-by-an-alien offenses carry a maximum of one year in prison per count, while knowingly making a false claim of U.S. citizenship to register or vote can carry up to five years per count.
Akpom’s alleged false statements in the naturalization process likewise carry a maximum of five years under federal law.
Actual sentences, if any, would depend on the charges of conviction, the federal Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon and James Debens.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines