Seven individuals who are not U.S. citizens have been federally charged with allegedly voting illegally in federal elections or falsely claiming U.S. citizenship.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould announced on Tuesday that seven noncitizens were charged with offenses related to illegal voting or false claims of citizenship. Six defendants were indicted Sept. 10, while the seventh was charged by criminal complaint the following day.
“Federal elections belong to American citizens—period,” Raybould said. “When individuals who are not citizens cast ballots or falsely claim citizenship, they violate federal law, undermine the integrity of our electoral process and erode the public’s confidence in the fairness of our elections. These charges send a clear message: We will enforce the law. We will hold offenders accountable. And we will safeguard the voting process for the citizens it is meant to serve.”
Two of the defendants are from Nigeria, three are from Mexico, one is from India and one is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Six are lawful permanent residents, while 36-year-old Moises Anwar Arellano-Alba is described by prosecutors as an illegal alien who was ordered to be deported in July.
Six of the defendants are accused of conduct involving the 2024 general election, while another is accused of falsely denying prior voting activity on a 2026 naturalization application. That case involved the defendant’s alleged registration and voting in the 2018 general election. Six of the cases involved ballots cast or attempted in Tarrant County.
The seven cases involve allegations against Helen Sayen Adams, Joshua Nmelichukwu Akpom, Carlos Salas Barrios, Khalwinder Singh Bhengura, Celestin Katubadi, Rocio Thrasher and Arellano-Alba. Prosecutors allege that several of the defendants falsely claimed U.S. citizenship when registering to vote or casting ballots. In two cases, provisional ballots were ultimately rejected, but prosecutors allege that casting the ballots was still unlawful.
The cases come as President Donald Trump’s administration has increased its focus on noncitizen voting and voter-roll reviews. The Justice Department has sued states seeking access to voter registration data, with the number of states targeted reaching 30 plus the District of Columbia earlier this year.
The Department of Homeland Security has also been involved in efforts to examine voter rolls for potential noncitizen registrations and voting.
In Texas, the secretary of state’s office previously identified 2,724 potential noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls after comparing more than 18 million registered voters against the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database. After additional reviews, the state said 578 individuals had demonstrated citizenship. On Tuesday, the secretary of state’s office referred 117 cases to the Texas attorney general’s office for further investigation of potential noncitizen voting.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas said the Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI’s Dallas field offices conducted the investigations with assistance from the Election Integrity Unit of the Texas Office of the Attorney General and the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office.
Raybould’s office also released that on the same day the seven defendants were indicted, Eliseo Morales-Tapia, an illegal alien from Mexico, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for aggravated identity theft, identity theft, voting by an alien in a federal election and false statements of citizenship.
The charges against the seven defendants are allegations. They are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
