LA voter citizenship verification gap exposed in court fight

Federal prosecutors announced Monday they are charging twenty-eight noncitizens with election crimes in California and arresting eleven of them, in a statewide push that has thrown the LA voter citizenship verification question back into the spotlight. The cases are part of an initiative called Operation Protect the Vote that brings together all four U.S. attorney's offices in California. Prosecutors say all of the accused are lawful permanent residents, or green card holders, who have legal immigration status but are not U.S. citizens and may not vote in federal elections.

The LA voter citizenship verification crackdown centers on allegations of fraudulent registration and unlawful voting. The criminal charges include making false statements in a naturalization application, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison, according to the Justice Department. Six defendants charged in the Eastern District of California face misdemeanor unlawful-voting charges punishable by up to one year. Among the accused is Omar Alexander Munoz, a 72-year-old Belizean national living in Commerce, Los Angeles County, who investigators say falsely claimed citizenship when registering in September 2019 and then voted in the 2020, 2022 and 2024 elections. Federal agents arrested him on Monday, according to Law Commentary's account of the announcement. The defendants arrested Monday were expected to make their initial appearances in U.S. district courts that afternoon, with no pleas taken, the department said.

Separate from the criminal cases, the Justice Department filed an emergency request in federal court to stop California from processing ballots returned by people on the voter rolls whom the federal government describes as likely noncitizens. On October 13, the federal government gave California a list of flagged individuals so their vote-by-mail ballots could be set aside until citizenship could be confirmed; California declined, prompting the lawsuit. The request follows the delivery last week of a flash drive to Los Angeles County containing the names of more than twenty thousand voters flagged by immigration investigators, along with a 48-hour deadline to investigate them. Local and state officials declined to do so. California has asked the federal government to explain how it reached its conclusions about the flagged voters and says it has not received that information, NPR reports.

The LA voter citizenship verification dispute sharpened on Tuesday when Bill Essayli, the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, posted on X that Los Angeles election officials told a federal court they have no independent way to verify voter citizenship beyond what voters themselves attest. "Los Angeles election officials just told a federal court they have no independent way to verify citizenship beyond what voters attest," Essayli wrote, adding that California has not acted on the flagged-voter list or agreed to set aside the ballots. Essayli wrote that eligible Americans' votes "are being diluted" while officials refuse to act on the list, according to the New York Post.

The wider battle over California's voter rolls

The LA voter citizenship verification clash is unfolding as early voting gets underway in many states ahead of the November midterm elections. At a Monday press conference, Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said the Justice Department will not look the other way while noncitizens vote in federal elections, and criticized California and Los Angeles County for what he described as inaction. Noncitizen voting has never been found to be a widespread problem in American elections, NPR notes, but the Trump administration has announced batches of new charges almost daily in recent weeks. Last Friday, McCotter warned state officials in a letter that they could face criminal prosecution for knowingly processing ballots from people federal agencies have flagged, and that evening President Trump wrote on Truth Social: "They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!"

What happens next

The standoff stretches back to the summer, when a primetime speech on election integrity set the tone for months of federal pressure on state voter rolls. Under federal law, only citizens may vote in federal elections. Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked a separate Justice Department plan to purge voter rolls nationwide, making the California fight one of several courtroom fronts that will run through Election Day. The LA voter citizenship verification battle now sits at the center of that larger dispute, and neither side shows signs of backing down. Sources: the Justice Department's press release on the charges, NPR's report on the escalation and the New York Post's coverage of the Los Angeles admission.