DOJ Details How It Found 20,000 Likely Noncitizens on CA Voter Rolls, Seeks Emergency Court Order

The Trump administration is asking a federal court to order election officials in California to set aside any vote-by-mail ballots for the upcoming midterm election returned by people the federal government has identified as "likely non-citizens" and prohibit them from counting those ballots unless the voter's citizenship status is verified.

After announcing that federal criminal charges had been filed against 28 foreign nationals living in California who fraudulently registered to vote in U.S. elections (most of whom actually voted in at least one election) in "Operation Protect the Vote," Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said they'd filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) in the suit filed last week against the State of California, alleging that officials are knowingly allowing noncitizens to vote in the state's elections.

Prior to filing suit, McCotter provided California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder Dean Logan with a thumb drive containing the names, addresses, and dates of birth of more than 20,000 people on the state's voter roll that the DOJ believes are noncitizens and made a few requests. Among them: 1) Not send a ballot for the November election to anyone on the list who hadn't already been sent one; 2) Set aside any ballots returned by people on the list; 3) Not tabulate any ballot returned by people on the list until their citizenship status could be verified; and 3) Verify the citizenship status of all of the people on the list.

California officials basically said, "Up yours" to the DOJ, leading to Monday's filing.

McCotter said that "each of the 28 defendants charged" Monday appeared on that list, adding, "California refused to look at that list. Today's charges show exactly what that refusal puts at risk. California must verify the citizenship of those more than 20,000 registrants before mail-in ballots are counted.”

Today DOJ charged 28 noncitizens across California with federal election crimes. All were on the list of 20k we sent to California, which has refused to even look at the list. It's not too late for California to step up & protect the votes of American citizens. https://t.co/5QAlPwBBjm

— Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter (@PADAGMcCotter) October 19, 2026

How did federal officials arrive at that 20,000 number? California officials have claimed one reason they couldn't check the list was that they needed to know how the feds got the voter roll since they didn't provide it, and another that they needed to first know the feds' methodology. We all know that's bunk, but McCotter explained the process anyway.

So, California has a public voter roll that's available. It doesn't include everyone's detailed information, but it has a list of everyone on the voter roll. DHS has that roll, of course; it's public. They then enriched and cross-referenced that list and that information with other government databases, other public information, to add in more of the kind of personal information, identifying information, that the state of California should have been providing us from the beginning.

After that, McCotter said, DHS then:

[S]ubtracted anybody who had any sort of evidence of actually being a citizen. So we looked at State Department records, passport records, Social Security Administration, alien files. We looked at whether someone may have gotten derivative citizenship from a parent, or maybe they were a naturalized citizen. What was left was then manually verified by a different part of the Department of Homeland Security.

At the end of that process, McCotter said there were "20,000 names who are likely not citizens of the United States, are on California's voter rolls, almost certainly have been sent or will soon be sent a mail-in ballot, and are not allowed to vote in federal elections, period."

The Department of Homeland Security is doing a rolling review of California's voter roll, and McCotter said that 20,000 number is "likely to grow."

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta incorrectly claim that the Trump administration is trying to remove people from the voter roll without due process and invalidate legitimate votes. McCotter emphasized that both the lawsuit and the motion for temporary restraining order simply ask that "the ballots of those individuals [potential noncitizens] be segregated so we can determine whether they are citizens. If they are, great. They have a right to vote. It will be counted. If they are not, they do not have a right to vote, and they have committed a federal crime by attempting to do so."

After hearing of Monday's charges, Bonta said:

"There is is the possibility and the reality of one-off isolated incidents of voter fraud and identifying 28 potential incidences -- these are arrests and we'll see what the facts show and whether they have to drop charges or they'll be able to prosecute -- but 28 out of 23 million registered voters in California, is just a, obviously it's a drop in the bucket. Numerically, it's 0.0001% of all the registered voters in it."

Well, Mr. Attorney General, numerically, very few Californians commit crimes, but allegedly you still prosecute them.

Democrats continue to claim that voting by noncitizens happens very rarely, relying on outdated studies and prosecution numbers from a time when the government at all levels looked the other way. McCotter reminded the assembled media that In just the last seven weeks, the Trump DOJ has "charged 113 people across 20 states with illegal voting or illegal registration."If that pace keeps up, we'll soon have numbers of documented noncitizen voting that could have changed election results.

"History shows that elections are often quite close. Here in California, just in 2024, the 13th congressional district was decided by less than 200 votes. We've had Senate elections, like in Minnesota - 2008 was decided by 300 votes. The presidential election of 2000, we all remember, decided by about 500 votes. So this is not some exercise in theory. This causes real damage to real elections and real damage to American citizens."

Operation Protect the Vote is a coordinated effort among all four California-based U.S. Attorney’s Offices to combat and root out fraud in U.S. elections and protect electoral integrity. All 28 people charged Monday are lawful permanent residents (LPRs) of the United States, or "green card" holders. Some have additional criminal records; Essayli, the prosecutor for the Central District (which includes Los Angeles) said that defendant Omar Alexander Muñoz "has a long criminal history, including narcotics possession and grand theft convictions."

The names and information of those charged is long, but I'm going to publish it in its entirety for a couple of reasons. First, it's easy to see just a number and not appreciate the full magnitude. And second, in the search engine-driven and AI-driven society in which we now live, having this full information reprinted as widely as possible is a very good thing. 

Broken down by jurisdiction, the following defendants are charged in today’s takedown:

Central District of California

All the following defendants below in this jurisdiction face felony charges, including false statements in a naturalization application:

• Omar Alexander Muñoz, 72, a Belizean national living in Commerce, California, fraudulently registered to vote in September 2019, claiming his was a U.S. citizen, then voted in U.S. elections in 2020, twice in 2022, and in 2024. He also lied on his application to become a naturalized U.S. citizen when he falsely stated under oath to have never claimed to be a U.S. citizen.
• Amandeep Kaur, 30, an Indian national living in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, and who is seeking to become a U.S. citizen, fraudulently registered to vote in December 2022 and voted in the November 2024 U.S. election.
• Ana Domínguez, 60, a Salvadoran national living in Long Beach, California, fraudulently registered to vote in July 2006 and lied in her naturalization paperwork in March 2026.
• Axel Giovani Prera García, 46, a Guatemalan national and Pico Rivera, California, resident, fraudulently registered to vote in 2002 and 2005, and lied in his naturalization paperwork in June 2025.
• Flavio Alejandro Zúñiga, 43, a Mexico national and La Puente, California, resident, fraudulently registered to vote in 2003 and lied in his naturalization paperwork in February 2026.
• Butleng Taing, 43, a Cambodian national living in Long Beach, fraudulently registered to vote in July 2021, voted in the 2022 and 2024 U.S. elections, and lied on his naturalization paperwork in August 2025.
• Carlos Antonio Galeas, 54, a Honduran national and West Covina, California, resident, fraudulently registered to vote in 2012 and 2016, then lied in his naturalization paperwork in September 2018.
• Ernest Gutiérrez Ruvalcaba, 57, a Mexican national living in Wilmington, California, fraudulently registered to vote in February 2024 and voted one month later.
• Jesús Narez-Madrigal, 52, a Mexican national living in Carson, California, fraudulently registered to vote in 2014, voted in the 2024 U.S. general election, and lied in his naturalization paperwork in June 2024.
• José Antonio Bañuelos-Díaz, 42, a Mexican national and West Adams, California, resident, fraudulently registered to vote in 2007 and lied on his naturalization paperwork in March 2025.
• Muhammad Khan, 50, a Pakistani national and Anaheim, California, resident, submitted a provisional ballot in 2020 and lied on his naturalization paperwork five years later.
• Rouzbeh Seyamaknejad, 63, a Canadian national and Rancho Palos Verdes, California, resident, fraudulently registered to vote in December 2018, lied in his naturalization application in January 2024, and voted in the November 2024 U.S. election.
• Sulema de León, 35, a Mexican national and Long Beach, California, resident, fraudulently registered to vote in 2013, lied on her naturalization application in 2019, and voted in the November 2020 U.S. general election.

Eastern District of California

The following defendants are charged with voting by an alien in a federal election, a misdemeanor that carries a statutory maximum sentence of one year in federal prison:

• Maricela Nazarín González, 43, a Mexican national living in Clovis, California, registered to vote in 2020, indicating that she was a U.S. citizen, and voted in elections in 2022, twice in 2024, and 2025.
• Rony de Jesús Sicaja, 38, a Guatemalan national living in Fresno, California, fraudulently registered to vote in 2017, and voted in the June 2022 primary election and the November 2024 general election in the United States.
• Camino Giles Jiménez, 51, a Mexican national living in Kerman, California, knowingly voted in three U.S. elections despite knowing he is a noncitizen, the most recent election being the June 2026 primary.
• Juan Antonio Rivas García, 46, a Mexican national and Sacramento, California, resident, fraudulently registered to vote in 2018 and 2020, both times falsely asserting under oath that he was a U.S. citizen. Rivas voted in the 2022 and 2024 U.S. elections.
• Giezell Viduya Adawag, 41, a Philippines national and Vacaville, California, resident, fraudulently registered to vote the day of the November 2024 general election, falsely certified that she was a U.S. citizen, and voted in the election that day.
• Kamlesh Navnitlal Shah, 67, an Indian national living in Sacramento, California, fraudulently registered to vote on the day of the November 2024 general election and voted that day. He is charged via information.

Northern District of California

The following defendants are charged with attempted procurement of naturalization contrary to law, false statement under oath in any matter relating to naturalization or citizenship, and voting by an alien:

• Verónica Bullene, 43, a.k.a. “Verónica Hernández Martínez,” a Mexican national living in Petaluma, California, made false statements on her naturalization application that she had never claimed to be a U.S. citizen when, in fact, she did so under penalty of perjury to register to vote in 2022 and 2023 then voted in 2024.
• David Shapiro, 41, a Georgian national living in San Jose, California, fraudulently registered to vote in 2024 and later voted in a U.S. election, and made false statements on his naturalization application that he had never claimed to be a U.S. citizen.
• Moe Thida Lwin, 57, a Myanmar national and Daly City, California, resident, fraudulently registered to vote in 2024 and then proceeded to illegally vote in a U.S. citizen. She made false statements on her naturalization paperwork as well.
• Manakotau Mataele Finau, 61, a Tongan national and Hayward, California, resident, fraudulently registered to vote in the 2024 election then vote, then lied about it in naturalization paperwork.
• Maribel del Carmen Garcés Barriga, 62, an Ecuadoran national and San Francisco, California, resident, made false statements in her naturalization paperwork that she never claimed U.S. citizenship and had never voted in a U.S. election or had registered to vote. In fact, Garcés fraudulently registered to vote in 2024 and proceeded to vote in a U.S. election.

Southern District of California

The following defendants are charged with false claim to citizenship to vote, unlawful attempted procurement of naturalization, and false statement under oath in matter relating to naturalization or citizenship:

• José Probitsado Amaro, 51, a citizen of the Philippines living in National City, California, fraudulently registered to vote by falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen. He then cast a ballot in the November 2024 general election and made false statements during his naturalization interview, denying that he had ever claimed U.S. citizenship and misrepresenting his voting history.
• Jennifer Jung, 31, a Canadian national living in San Diego, California, fraudulently registered to vote by falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen. She then cast a ballot in the November 2024 general election and made false statements during her naturalization interview, denying that she had ever claimed U.S. citizenship and misrepresenting her voting history.
• Erick Ronaldo Soto Mendizábal, 64, a citizen of Guatemala and former Oceanside, California, resident now living in Moreno Valley, California, fraudulently registered to vote by falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen. He then cast a ballot in the November 2024 general election and made false statements in his naturalization application, denying that he had ever claimed U.S. citizenship and misrepresenting his voting history.
• Pamele Arbués Line, 56, a citizen of the Philippines living in Escondido, California, registered to vote, cast a ballot in the November 2024 general election, and made false statements in her naturalization interview, denying that she had ever claimed U.S. citizenship and misrepresenting her voting history.

Editor’s Note: Republicans are fighting for election integrity by requiring proper identification to vote. It's common sense, yet Democrats are spreading lies about the impact of such a measure. 

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