Federal prosecutors keep charging noncitizens with illegal voting across multiple states even as top Democrats insist the problem simply does not happen and fight citizenship-proof rules.
Fox News reported a fresh string of election-related arrests and indictments against noncitizens in recent weeks, covering cases in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and New Jersey while the SAVE Act fight continues in Congress.
Attorney General Todd Blanche announced indictments of 10 foreign nationals accused of voter fraud in Minnesota alone, including during August's primary. He said the issue should not be treated as a "partisan concept."
Three noncitizens were arrested this month in Philadelphia County and charged with election-related offenses. Three New Jersey residents from Jamaica, Venezuela, and Senegal were charged the same month with illegally voting and making false statements on citizenship applications.
Democratic leaders have answered the cases with flat denials. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., whose district covers part of the Philadelphia area, declared after voting no on the citizenship bill in 2025: "Let me be perfectly clear: This is a non-issue. Noncitizens do not vote in U.S. elections."
"Let me be perfectly clear: This is a non-issue. Noncitizens do not vote in U.S. elections,"
Rep. James Walkinshaw of Fairfax County, Virginia, took the same line last month. "It is so rare that it's almost impossible to measure. It just doesn’t happen," he said.
DHS pointed to Mahady Sacko, a Mauritanian illegal immigrant accused of voting in seven federal elections since 2008. Cliff Sanon, a Haitian illegal immigrant, was charged with submitting a fraudulent voter registration application ahead of the 2026 Pennsylvania primary. Sade Guppy, a Trinidad and Tobago national, allegedly voted illegally in the 2022 midterms. Joshua Kofi Edzie of Ghana was arrested on noncitizen voting-related charges.
Those individual filings sit alongside a wider Justice Department push. The New York Post reported the department charged 16 people across multiple states with alleged illegal voting and election crimes, including noncitizens casting ballots in federal elections. Eight non-citizens were charged in Texas alone, with additional defendants in Idaho, Georgia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Michigan. Assistant AG Colin M. McDonald said the administration has charged 50 non-citizens with illegal voting, part of 151 arrests, more than 1,620 open cases, and over 300,000 suspected cases under review.
"America’s elections are for Americans," McDonald said. The department added, "Let this be a warning to ANYONE trying to cheat and undermine our elections."
Party resistance to basic enforcement has left Democrats looking fractured on other fronts as well, visible in recent House splits when members broke ranks on key votes.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., reaffirmed his position the same day Blanche spoke. He called noncitizen voting "already illegal and every legitimate study shows it is extremely rare, despite Donald Trump’s claim to the contrary." Padilla framed the dozen arrests as proof of rarity after investigators looked at millions of the 174 million registered voters, and dismissed the cases as a "desperate attempt by Republicans to distract from their record of rising costs, chaos, and corruption that are hurting the American people."
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said in March that "noncitizens do not vote in American elections." Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., labeled the SAVE Act "extremely dangerous" and "voter suppression."
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill disclosed over the summer that roughly 400 noncitizens had voted in the state while resisting calls for extra federal scrutiny. A software problem had automatically registered noncitizens through driver's license applications.
The Washington Examiner detailed how Sherrill's office removed 6,600 nonresidents from the rolls after the error. Her own preliminary analysis showed fewer than 400 of those newly registered individuals voted. That admission landed after years of claims that evidence of noncitizen voting was essentially nonexistent.
"Our preliminary analysis shows fewer than 400 individuals who were newly registered for the first time because of the error voted," Sherrill said.
The same state produced another concrete arrest. Breitbart reported that Sanata Coulibaly, a legal immigrant from Senegal, was arrested September 17 by HSI and FBI agents. She faces charges of unlawful procurement of citizenship and voting by an alien after allegedly casting ballots in the 2018, 2020, and 2024 elections. Coulibaly entered the country in 1993 and received a green card in 2009.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin answered the denials directly: "Sanctuary politicians can try to claim that this kind of voter fraud isn’t happening, but it’s very real and is a serious threat to our country. Non-citizens have no right to vote in our elections. The Trump Administration will always protect the integrity of our election systems so that only American citizens are electing American leaders."
Donor hesitation and post-election recalculations have already forced hard conversations inside the party, including frozen megadonor cash after major losses.
Just The News reported the Justice Department crackdown has produced more than 200 arrests and indictments for noncitizen voting and election fraud, with totals expected to climb. In recent weeks the department indicted or convicted 67 individuals for election-related crimes while DHS made more than 160 arrests. DHS is investigating 1,620 cases of noncitizen voter fraud and reviewing hundreds of thousands more names against voter rolls.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said, "I think there are a lot of nervous election officials because I think some of them know that they've been looking the other way when this is happening, and we're catching it all over the country." She added, "What we care about is that noncitizens who voted in a federal election canceled out the votes of American citizens. It does happen. It happens a lot more than anybody says. It wasn't being prosecuted under the Biden DOJ."
A DHS spokesperson said the agency remains committed to "rooting out and investigating election fraud wherever it can be found," while declining comment on active cases.
White House spokesperson Lauren Bis rejected the long-running dismissal. "Despite the media and Democrats denying it for decades, noncitizens continue to register and vote in federal elections," she said. "Only Americans should be electing America’s leaders."
House Republicans have repeatedly forced difficult public votes that expose caucus divisions, including recent anti-socialism roll calls that left most Democrats on record against the measure.
The SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. Democrats have called it anti-voter and a tool to scapegoat immigrants. Scanlon, Padilla, Morelle, and others continue to oppose it even as the arrest list grows. Sen. Mike Lee spoke at an "Only Citizens Vote" rally outside the Capitol in September 2025 pressing for passage.
Forecasts already treat a Democratic House majority as nearly locked in by some analysts, with Senate paths described as realistic, yet the party still refuses basic citizenship checks at registration.
The pattern is plain. Federal agents keep filing charges against noncitizens who registered or voted. State officials in New Jersey acknowledged thousands wrongly placed on the rolls and hundreds who cast ballots. Democratic officeholders answer with the same script: it is a non-issue, it is extremely rare, it just does not happen.
Taxpayers and lawful voters are left watching officials protect a talking point instead of the ballot box. Citizenship is the clearest line in a free election. Pretending otherwise does not make the indictments disappear.