Justice Department officials said on Monday that they had charged more than two dozen residents in California with violating federal voting laws, part of the Trump administration’s escalating effort to assert more control over the midterm elections.
Trent McCotter, a senior department official, said at a news conference that 28 people, all of them green card holders, or legal immigrants with residency status, had been charged. Of those, 11 had already been arrested, officials added.
The arrests ramped up the administration’s campaign against voter fraud, which so far has generated scattered cases around the country but nothing like the mass fraud that President Trump frequently claims threatens the foundations of American democracy.
Mr. McCotter held up the new arrests as evidence supporting claims the administration made last week that 20,000 people in the state are “likely noncitizens” on the state voter rolls. California officials have greeted those claims with great skepticism, accusing the Trump administration of seeking to sow doubt and meddle in an election in which voting has already started, with the deadline 15 days away.
The arrests amount to “voter intimidation and a blatant attempt to undermine trust in our midterm elections,” said Janice Hahn, a former Democratic congresswoman who now serves on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. She added that they were “being used to paint a picture of widespread voter fraud when we know that is not the case.”
Last week, the administration sued California and Los Angeles County, demanding that a court order local elections officials to set aside any ballots from 20,000 people the administration suspects are noncitizens on the state’s voter roll.
During the news conference, Mr. McCotter said that the arrests should “ensure integrity in elections, not undermine them.” All of the 28 people charged on Monday were on the list of 20,000 names given to California officials last week, Mr. McCotter said, adding that the administration was seeking a court order to separate any mail-in ballots those people may have submitted for the current election.
In a highly unusual letter to state elections officials last week, Mr. McCotter demanded that they not count any ballots cast by those 20,000 individuals until the state could be certain they were U.S. citizens. Otherwise, Mr. McCotter suggested, California election officials could be criminally investigated or prosecuted for aiding and abetting voter fraud. President Trump echoed Mr. McCotter’s claim on social media, vowing, “They will all go to jail for a long period of time!”
On Monday, Justice Department officials said they were seeking California’s cooperation. “Our door is open — we want to collaborate with California and now with L.A. County, as well,” Mr. McCotter said.
The county registrar did not respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration has been engaged in a far-reaching effort to find, arrest and publicize instances of voter fraud, as the president repeatedly claims, with no evidence, that Democrats steal elections by allowing immigrants to vote illegally. In the last two months alone, the Justice Department has charged 113 people across 20 states with violations of voting laws.
Legal experts and voting officials say those figures, while larger than prior years, still reflect a tiny fraction of a percent of the total voting, and therefore are not significant enough to cause alarm about the integrity of elections or the results. The 28 people charged on Monday come in a state where 16 million people voted in the 2024 general election. Officials said that of those 28 people charged, 21 cast illegal votes in past U.S. elections.
One of those charged is Omar Alexander Munoz, a 72-year-old man from Belize who was arrested at his home in Commerce, Calif., on charges of false statements in a naturalization application and fraudulent voter registration. According to a criminal complaint, records show that Mr. Munoz, who is not a U.S. citizen, voted in the 2020, 2022 and 2024 general elections.
Mr. Munoz and his lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, said the arrests amounted to a drop in the bucket of the 23 million people registered to vote in the state.
People committing voter fraud should be prosecuted, he added, citing a case of voter fraud brought by a local district attorney. It involved a woman in Orange County, whom he described as a Republican and who registered her dog to vote and cast ballots in her pet’s name. She pleaded guilty and was required to pay for billboards saying that voter fraud is “wrong and illegal, and you should not engage in it,” Mr. Bonta said.
Shawn Hubler contributed reporting from Los Angeles, and Laurel Rosenhall from Sacramento.
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