The Justice Department announced on September 18, 2026, that federal prosecutors had brought charges against 16 noncitizens in connection with illegal voting, illegal voter registration, false claims of citizenship, and related offenses. The cases span Texas, Idaho, Georgia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Michigan. Officials described them as individual prosecutions uncovered through separate investigations, not as a single coordinated scheme. A complaint, indictment, or information contains only accusations.
Every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Texas accounts for eight of the defendants. In the Northern District, prosecutors charged seven people after investigations by Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI, with help from the Texas Attorney General’s Election Integrity Unit and the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office.
Moises Anwar Arellano Alba, 36, a Mexican national under a final order of removal, is accused of falsely claiming U.S. citizenship on a Texas driver license application in 2023 and voting early in the November 2024 general election in Dallas County. He is also a convicted felon, according to charging documents. He surrendered to agents after a brief period as a fugitive.
Helen Sayen Adams, 67, a Nigerian national and lawful permanent resident since May 2024, is charged with voting by an alien and making a false statement of citizenship to register. Prosecutors say she claimed citizenship on a voter registration form in June 2024 and voted in the November 2024 election in Tarrant County, later admitting she was not a citizen.
Joshua Nmelichukwu Akpom, 27, also Nigerian and a lawful permanent resident since 2016, faces a charge of false statements in connection with naturalization rather than a voting count. Prosecutors allege he registered in 2017 and voted in the 2018 general election, then denied those acts on a 2026 naturalization application. The five year statute of limitations had already run on the earlier voting conduct.
Carlos Salas Barrios, 41, a Mexican national and lawful permanent resident since 2018, is accused of casting a provisional ballot in Tarrant County in November 2024 even though he was not a citizen and was not registered. The ballot was rejected. Casting it remains a federal offense under the charging documents. Khalwinder Singh Bhengura, 69, an Indian national and lawful permanent resident since 2022, is charged with voting by an alien and a false citizenship statement.
He allegedly claimed citizenship when registering in January 2024 and again on a driver license application that August, then voted in the November 2024 election and later admitted he knew he was not a citizen. Celestin Katubadi, 20, a national of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a lawful permanent resident, is accused of casting a provisional ballot in Tarrant County in November 2024 after claiming citizenship on a provisional voter affidavit. His ballot was also rejected.
Rocio Thrasher, 38, a Mexican national and lawful permanent resident since 2017, is charged with voting by an alien and a false citizenship statement. The indictment alleges she declared citizenship when registering in June 2024 and voted in the November 2024 general election, later admitting she knew she was not a citizen. In the Western District of Texas, Monica Carzoli, 46, a Mexican national and lawful permanent resident, was arrested in Del Rio.
The Justice Department said she admitted registering to vote and casting a ballot in the November 2024 election. U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould in the Northern District of Texas said federal elections belong to American citizens and that noncitizens who cast ballots or falsely claim citizenship violate federal law and undermine confidence in the process. In Idaho, a federal grand jury indicted Fredy Avila Gomez, a Mexican national described by prosecutors as an illegal alien.
The indictment alleges he falsely claimed citizenship to register and then voted in May 2022 and November 2024. It also charges him with wire fraud, theft of government funds, a false statement on a passport application, identification document fraud, a false statement during a firearm purchase, and unlawful firearm possession. Court records say the broader scheme, involving a fraudulent birth certificate and Idaho identification cards used to obtain benefits and documents, ran from at least March 2017 into 2026.
If convicted he faces a maximum of 20 years. Homeland Security Investigations led the case, joined by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Health and Human Services inspector general, and the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service. Georgia prosecutors charged three people. Pauline Lewis, 65, a national of Antigua and Barbuda described as a suspected illegal alien, was arrested on a complaint alleging she voted as a noncitizen.
Local reporting citing the U.S. Attorney’s Office said she is accused of casting absentee ballots in the 2020, 2021, and 2024 federal elections after entering the country on a student visa in 1979 and never applying for citizenship. Gabriel Covarrubias, 44, a Mexican national also described as a suspected illegal alien, is alleged to have voted in person under a false name in the November 2024 federal election in the Lawrenceville area and to have made a false statement on a U.S. passport application.
Authorities say the passport application claimed a different name and birth in Puerto Rico. Analiea Milliscent Eccles, 44, a Venezuelan national and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipient, was arrested on a complaint charging voting as a noncitizen and a false claim of citizenship in order to vote. The Justice Department said she voted nine times between 2008 and 2024. Reporting based on the local U.S.
Attorney’s Office said she entered on a visitor visa in 1991, received DACA status in 2013, and has never applied for citizenship. DACA provides temporary protection from removal and work authorization. It does not confer citizenship or the right to vote in federal elections. In Massachusetts, Gladys Adaeze Okafor, 56, a Nigerian national and lawful permanent resident since December 2022, was arrested and charged with unlawfully voting as an alien.
Charging documents allege she submitted a registration card in July 2022 certifying under penalty of perjury that she was a citizen, voted in the 2022 midterm election, submitted another registration form in October 2023 again claiming citizenship, and voted in the 2024 presidential primary. She has not applied for citizenship. The charge carries up to one year in prison, a fine, and possible deportation.
In Wisconsin, Julieta Englestad, 53, a Colombian national and lawful permanent resident, faces charges for falsely claiming citizenship when registering to vote ahead of the November 2022 federal election, along with an illegal voting count. The Justice Department said conviction on the registration count carries a maximum of five years and the voting count a maximum of one year. In New Jersey, Santana Coulibaly, a lawful permanent resident originally from Senegal, was arrested after registering in October 2016.
Prosecutors allege she voted in federal elections in 2018 and 2020 and submitted a provisional ballot in the 2024 presidential election. She is also accused of making false statements on naturalization applications submitted in December 2021 and October 2024. Local charging details indicate ballots in the 2018 midterm, the 2020 primary, the 2020 general election, and 2024. The false statement count on a naturalization application can carry up to 10 years.
The voting count carries up to one year. In Michigan, Victoria Viktorivna Aquilina, 43, a Russian national, was charged with illegally voting in the 2024 general election. She registered in 2023. Court records cited by local reporting say she entered the United States in 2005 on an au pair visa and never naturalized.
Investigators matched handwriting on her voter documents to immigration paperwork and confirmed through city clerk records that she voted in November 2024. U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. said American elections are for American citizens.
Federal law draws a bright line. Under 18 U.S. Code Section 611, it is a crime for any alien to vote in an election held in whole or in part for president, vice president, or members of Congress, with only a narrow exception for certain separately conducted local contests. The penalty is a fine, up to one year in prison, or both.
False claims of citizenship made to register or vote, false statements on naturalization forms, and passport fraud are charged under separate statutes that can carry longer sentences. Unlawful voting can also trigger deportation under immigration law even without a criminal conviction. The department’s announcement groups the cases because they share a common legal theory: noncitizens allegedly registered or voted by claiming a status they did not hold.
Nothing in the charging documents or official statements describes meetings, shared organizers, common funding, or any other link among the defendants. The nationalities, districts, election years, and methods differ. Some allegedly cast counted ballots years ago. Others cast provisional ballots that election officials rejected.
One defendant is charged only for later denying the conduct on a citizenship application. Several of the alleged acts went undetected for years. Eccles is accused of voting across a span from 2008 to 2024. Coulibaly’s alleged voting began in 2018.
Gomez’s document scheme is alleged to date to 2017, with votes in 2022 and 2024. Akpom’s alleged vote occurred in 2018. Others surfaced around the 2024 cycle after cross checks of voter rolls against immigration records, admissions during immigration proceedings, or reviews of registration forms. The cases arrive amid a wider Justice Department focus on election offenses involving noncitizens.
Officials have not claimed these 16 prosecutions altered any election outcome. They have argued that each illegal ballot or false registration statement, however isolated, violates a rule that reserves federal voting for citizens.
