Today, the Justice Department announced charges against 16 individuals in connection with illegal voting, illegal voter registration, and related election-fraud schemes across the United States. The cases span eight federal districts and involve people originally from Mexico, Nigeria, India, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Venezuela, Antigua and Barbuda, Colombia, and Russia. According to the announcement, the charges include unlawful voting by non-citizens in federal elections, false claims of citizenship in order to register or vote, and related offenses that emerged during the investigations, including wire fraud, naturalization fraud, passport fraud, and unlawful firearm purchases. The government’s press release uses the legal term “alien” to describe many of the defendants, but behind that word are real people: a 20-year-old from Congo, a 69-year-old from India, a DACA recipient from Venezuela, and several green-card holders who have lived in the United States for years. Some are lawful permanent residents, allowed to live and work in the country but not to vote in federal elections. Others are undocumented. At least one was already under a final order of removal. All now face the possibility of prison, fines, deportation, or all three. It is important to remember that these are accusations, not convictions. Complaints, indictments, and informations are merely formal charges, and every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. The scope of the announcement is also a reminder that federal officials are actively investigating election integrity and treating non-citizen voting as a serious crime.
Texas produced the largest cluster of cases, with eight noncitizens charged across two federal districts. In the Northern District of Texas, Moises Anwar Arellano-Alba, 36, a Mexican citizen who had already been ordered removed from the United States, was charged with voting in a federal election and with falsely stating that he was a U.S. citizen when registering to vote. Helen Sayen Adams, 67, a Nigerian citizen and lawful permanent resident since May 2024, faces the same two charges; her case shows how quickly legal trouble can follow for someone who votes before completing the naturalization process. Joshua Nmelichukwu Akpom, 27, also from Nigeria and a lawful permanent resident since 2016, was charged with making false statements in relation to naturalization—the process by which a green-card holder becomes a citizen. Carlos Salas Barrios, 41, a Mexican citizen and lawful permanent resident since 2018, was charged by complaint with voting in a federal election as an alien. Khalwinder Singh Bhengura, 69, an Indian citizen and lawful permanent resident since 2022, was charged with voting as an alien and with falsely claiming citizenship to register. Celestin Katubadi, 20, from the Democratic Republic of Congo and a lawful permanent resident, faces the same charges. Rocio Thrasher, 38, a Mexican citizen and lawful permanent resident since 2017, was also charged with voting as an alien and falsely claiming citizenship to register. In the Western District of Texas, Monica Carzoli, 46, a Mexican citizen and lawful permanent resident, was arrested in Del Rio after she allegedly admitted to registering to vote and then voting in the November 2024 election. The Texas cases are striking in their variety: some defendants had lived in the U.S. for years with green cards, one was a young recent immigrant, and another had a final removal order. What they share is the accusation that each cast a ballot in a federal election without being a U.S. citizen.
Beyond Texas, the cases reach into Idaho, where Avila Gomez, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, faces an indictment with an unusually long list of charges. Prosecutors allege that she claimed to be a U.S. citizen to register to vote, then voted in May 2022 and again in November 2024. She also allegedly obtained Idaho identification cards by fraud while carrying out a scheme to defraud U.S. departments and agencies. The federal grand jury in Boise charged her with wire fraud, theft of government funds, false statement of citizenship in order to vote, voting by an alien, false statement in a passport application, fraud in connection with identification documents, false statement during the purchase of a firearm, and unlawful possession of a firearm. The case illustrates how an investigation into voting can expand into other federal crimes, especially when false documents and guns are involved. In Georgia, three noncitizens were charged. Pauline Lewis, 65, a suspected undocumented immigrant from Antigua and Barbuda, was arrested on a criminal complaint charging her with voting as a non-citizen in a federal election. Gabriel Covarrubias, 44, a suspected undocumented immigrant from Mexico, is accused of voting in person using a false name in the November 2024 federal election and making a false statement in a U.S. passport application. Analiea Milliscent Eccles, 44, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela and a DACA recipient—Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which protects certain young immigrants from deportation but does not grant citizenship or voting rights—is alleged to have voted nine times between 2008 and 2024. She appeared in federal court after her arrest on charges of voting as a non-citizen and making a false claim of U.S. citizenship to vote. The nine alleged ballots are the most repeated voting in this group of cases, and they raise serious questions about how registration and voting systems can fail to detect patterns over a decade and a half.
The remaining defendants are scattered across Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Michigan. In Massachusetts, Gladys Adaeze Okafor, 56, a Nigerian citizen and lawful permanent resident, was arrested and charged with illegally voting in the 2022 elections and allegedly voting in the 2024 general election. In Wisconsin, Julieta Englestad, 53, a Colombian citizen and lawful permanent resident, faces charges for falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen when she registered to vote in the November 2022 federal election. If convicted, she faces a maximum of five years in prison on the illegal registration count and one year on the illegal voting count—consequences that may seem harsh for a single act but reflect the seriousness with which federal law treats false claims of citizenship. In New Jersey, Santana Coulibaly, a lawful permanent resident, is accused of a longer pattern of participation: she registered to vote in October 2016, voted in the federal elections in 2018 and 2020, and submitted a provisional ballot in the 2024 presidential election. A provisional ballot is one that is set aside until election officials can verify whether the voter is eligible; in her case, prosecutors say she was not. Coulibaly also allegedly made fraudulent statements in two applications for naturalization, one in December 2021 and another in October 2024. She was arrested this week. In the Eastern District of Michigan, Victoria Viktorivna Aquilina, 43, a Russian national, registered to vote in 2023 and allegedly cast a vote in the 2024 general election; she was charged with illegally voting. These cases vary widely—from a single vote to multiple elections, from first-time offenders to alleged repeat voters—but they all share the same central allegation: the person was not a U.S. citizen and should not have been participating in American elections.
Taken together, the charges paint a complex and human picture. Some of the defendants may have misunderstood the rules. Lawful permanent residents, especially those who have lived in the U.S. for many years, might see themselves as full members of their communities and not realize that voting is one thing they cannot do until they become citizens. Others, according to the allegations, acted with clear intention to deceive—using false names, lying on passport applications, obtaining fraudulent ID cards, and even buying firearms while doing so. The related charges of wire fraud, naturalization fraud, and identity document fraud show that non-citizen voting is rarely an isolated mistake. It often happens alongside other paperwork that, together, forms a trail of false statements. The Justice Department’s decision to announce all 16 cases at once is a deliberate message. It tells the public that election integrity is a priority and that even a single illegal vote can bring federal prosecutors into a person’s life. It also tells immigrants, both documented and undocumented, that participating in federal elections carries severe consequences, including deportation. At the same time, the individuals in these cases are not abstract warnings. They are a 20-year-old from Congo, a 67-year-old Nigerian woman, a 69-year-old Indian man, a DACA recipient from Venezuela. Some have deep roots in the United States; some may have lived here for decades. The justice system’s task is to weigh the evidence, determine who acted knowingly, and treat each person fairly under the law.
In the end, this announcement is both a warning and a test of American legal principles. It is a warning to anyone who is not a U.S. citizen that registering to vote or casting a ballot in a federal election can lead to arrest, criminal charges, imprisonment, and removal. It is also a test of due process. The Justice Department itself emphasizes that a complaint, indictment, and information merely contain accusations. All 16 defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. They have the right to attorneys, to examine the evidence against them, to challenge witnesses, and to present their own defenses. Some may argue that they were misled by voter registration forms or did not understand the citizenship requirement. Others may have no defense and will face the consequences. The courts will decide who is guilty, and what punishments are appropriate. For the rest of us, the announcement is a reminder that voting is not just a right but a responsibility. Protecting the integrity of elections requires both vigilance and fairness. It also requires remembering that the people charged are not statistics or political symbols; they are human beings whose lives have been upended. Some may have made terrible decisions; others may have made honest mistakes. The legal process will sort that out. In the meantime, the country can hold two thoughts at once: election laws must be enforced, and every person—citizen or not, accused or accuser—deserves to be treated with dignity.