Amid a nationwide voter fraud crackdown, the U.S. Department of Justice filed new charges against 63 individuals for election-related crimes.
The Justice Department continues to pursue charges against illegal immigrants, lawful permanent residents and other foreign nationals accused of making false claims of U.S. citizenship, unlawfully registering to vote or illegally casting ballots in American elections.
This latest round of 63 cases “marks the largest surge of voter-fraud arrests since President Trump returned to office,” Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on Monday.
Since the beginning of the Trump administration, federal prosecutors have charged 239 people with voting fraud-related offenses.
In the last nine weeks, the DOJ has charged 195 non-citizens across 25 states with illegal voting and voter registration offenses.
The cases highlight broader failures of states to verify identity documents and U.S. citizenship and ensure election integrity.
“These foreign nationals allegedly took advantage of the trust of the American people and flouted the laws that govern our nation’s elections,” Blanche said. “This Department of Justice will continue investigating and prosecuting voter fraud to restore confidence in our electoral system.”
In North Georgia, four non-citizens have been arrested and charged since September for illegally voting in federal elections. The cases include visa overstays, making false claims of U.S. citizenship and other identity-related fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Northern District of Georgia announced in a news release.
Georgia Benito Covarrubias Iniguez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico residing in Winder, Georgia, appeared Monday in federal court on charges of making a false claim of citizenship in order to vote.
Iniguez, 64, of Jalisco, Mexico, is accused of obtaining a fraudulent passport to create a fake identity which he then used to vote, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Iniguez was charged in a criminal complaint Oct. 16 and federal agents took him into custody this week.
“Votes of non-citizens impersonating Americans undermine the integrity of our cherished democratic process and diminish public confidence in our election results,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said. “This case and the many others brought in this district and around the country reinforce that non-citizens who vote in federal elections will be found, arrested and prosecuted.”
The U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service Miami Field Office, which oversees the Southeastern United States, led the investigation in Iniguez’s case in Georgia.
In 2000, after entering the United States from Mexico, Iniquez fraudulently obtained a passport in the name of a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico, according to court documents.
Prosecutors allege Iniquez used that fraudulent identity to obtain a Georgia driver’s license, register to vote, and then he voted in the Nov. 5, 2024, general election.
Others aliens recently charged for voting as a non-citizen and election fraud in the Northern District of Georgia include:
Pauline Lewis, 65, of Dawsonville, Georgia, is alleged to have voted by absentee ballot in the Nov. 5, 2024, Jan. 5, 2021, and Nov. 3, 2020, federal elections.
Lewis is allegedly a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda who entered the United States on a student visa in 1979 and remained in the country but never applied to become a U.S. citizen, according to court documents.
Analiea Milliscent Eccles, 43, of Morrow, Georgia, appeared Sept. 14 in federal court on charges she voted as a non-citizen in a federal election and made a false claim of U.S. citizenship to vote in an election.
According to court documents, she has never applied to become a U.S. citizen. Eccles is alleged to have fraudulently voted nine times between 2008 and 2024.
Prosecutors allege Eccles is a citizen of Venezuela who entered the United States on a temporary visitor visa in 1991 and remained in the country, applying for and receiving Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status in 2013.
Gabriel Covarrubias, 44, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, is alleged to have voted in person using a false name in the Nov. 5, 2024, federal election.
Covarrubias is a citizen of Mexico who falsely claimed in a U.S. passport application submitted in March 2023 that he had a different name and was born in Puerto Rico, according to court documents.
On Sept. 1, he waived indictment and was charged by criminal information with making a false statement in a U.S. passport application and voting as a non-citizen in a federal election.
Other cases have been filed in Texas, Arkansas, Maryland, New Jersey, Wisconsin, New York, Utah, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and across California, North Carolina and Tennessee.
In the Southern District of Texas, five non-citizens, including an illegal alien, have been charged with election-related crimes. They are from the countries of Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria and Mexico, have been charged for unlawfully voting in federal elections, lying on immigration documents or falsely claiming American citizenship.
U.S. Attorneys in North Carolina filed charges against 18 individuals, including an illegal immigrant, for falsely claiming citizenship to vote and voting by an alien.
In total, the DOJ has charged 30 people in North Carolina this year for illegally voting. Several of them allegedly voted in multiple elections, including one individual who voted in 12 general elections.
In the District of Maryland, Mohammad Hachibur Rahman, 33, an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh, is charged by information with unlawful voting. Rahman allegedly voted in the November 2024 election.
In the District of New Mexico, Robert Glenn Johnson, 63, of Annapolis, Maryland, has been charged for fraudulently submitting a voter registration application in New Mexico.
The Central District of California charged six additional non-citizens in Los Angeles County who voted in U.S. Elections with lying on their naturalization applications.
