LOS ANGELES, CA – Federal authorities announced criminal charges Monday against 28 lawful permanent residents in California who are accused of election-related crimes, including fraudulent voter registration and false statements in naturalization applications, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Federal law enforcement arrested 11 of the 28 defendants on Monday, Oct. 19, the Justice Department said in a news release. The charges are part of Operation Protect the Vote, a coordinated effort of all four California U.S. Attorney’s Offices.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced the charges at a news conference in downtown Los Angeles. The announcement came about two weeks before the Nov. 3 general election.
An arrest is not a conviction, and the allegations remain subject to the criminal court process.
What the complaints allege
The Justice Department said the defendants are charged in criminal complaints with federal crimes, including that they fraudulently registered to vote in U.S. elections. The department said most of them cast ballots in those contests.
According to the department, “the defendants knowingly and willfully lied under oath in their voter registration applications that they were U.S. citizens to be permitted to vote in California.” That is the government’s account of the allegations, drawn from court documents, and it has not been tested in court.
The charges include making false statements in a naturalization application, and some defendants are also charged with fraudulent voter registration. The department said those felonies carry up to five years in federal prison.
According to initial reports on the complaints, 22 of the 28 are accused of actually voting, five are accused only of registering and one submitted a provisional ballot in 2020.
Two defendants described in the complaints
Omar Muñoz, 72, a lawful permanent resident from Belize who lives in Commerce, is accused of fraudulently registering to vote in September 2019. Prosecutors allege he then voted in 2020, twice in 2022 and again in 2024.
Muñoz is also accused of lying on his application to become a naturalized U.S. citizen by claiming he had never falsely claimed to be a citizen.
Ana Domínguez, 60, a native of El Salvador who lives in Long Beach and is a lawful permanent resident, is accused of fraudulently registering to vote in July 2006. She is also accused of lying about it in naturalization paperwork in March 2026.
Four defendants appear in federal court
Four of the defendants made initial appearances Monday afternoon at the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. A magistrate judge ordered them released on their own recognizance without mandatory supervision.
All four are scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Nov. 9.
Domínguez told those at the courthouse she had no memory of registering to vote. Another man accused of the same crimes said he was not aware of ever registering, as prosecutors claim he did.
The question of intent
Rick Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at the UCLA School of Law, wrote in a blog post Monday that some noncitizens register to vote by accident, for example because of a mistake at the Department of Motor Vehicles. He wrote that a crime exists only if the government can prove willful violations of federal law.
Hasen is an academic and not a party to the case. The prosecutors’ allegation that the registrations were knowing and willful is the central claim the defendants will face.
List sent to California on Oct. 13
The Justice Department said that on Oct. 13 the federal government gave California a list of people it wanted to ensure had their vote-by-mail ballots set aside “until these individuals’ citizenship status could be confirmed.” The list contained more than 20,000 people the federal government considers likely noncitizen registrants.
The Justice Department then sued Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan in federal court in the Central District of California. The suit seeks to keep mail ballots from those voters from being counted.
Gov. Gavin Newsom responded to the lawsuit Oct. 15 in a statement. He called it “a sad, desperate attempt by Trump to use his politicized Justice Department to try to suppress California voters just three weeks before Election Day.”
Weber rejects the federal demand
Weber shared her response to the Justice Department’s demand in a news release on Oct. 15. The letter to McCotter responds to the demand concerning about 20,000 alleged noncitizens on California’s voter rolls.
Weber said she would not disenfranchise thousands of Californians based on an unsupported and likely inaccurate belief that they are likely noncitizens. Her office also issued a separate statement on the Justice Department letter, which set a 48-hour deadline.
State and federal officials dispute the scale
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Monday at a news conference in San Francisco that voter fraud is illegal and wrong. He said the 28 people charged represent about 0.0001% of the state’s registered voters, which he said points to isolated incidents rather than widespread fraud.
Bonta said the state will not set aside ballots as the federal government demanded. He also said the number of alleged noncitizens cited by federal officials fell from 190,000 flagged over the summer to 20,000.
McCotter said noncitizen voting causes real damage to real elections and to American citizens, and that the charges show why the lawsuit matters. Federal officials said 113 noncitizens have been charged nationwide in the last two months across 20 states. They said about 9.4 million Californians voted in the June primary.
Homeland Security Investigations Acting Executive Associate Director John A. Condon said federal, state and local partners would continue to pursue people who knowingly violate federal law.
Preliminary hearing set for Nov. 9
The four defendants who appeared Monday are due back in court for a preliminary hearing on Nov. 9. Court dates for the other defendants, including those who were not arrested Monday, were not part of the information released.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit against Weber and Logan remains pending. Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
