The Justice Department charged 16 people with election crimes, including an illegal immigrant and noncitizens who voted in federal races, as prosecutors move against ballots cast by people who were never eligible.
On Monday, the Department of Justice announced charges against 16 individuals accused of election crimes that include voting by an alien, casting more than one ballot, fraudulent voting, and false citizenship claims tied to voter registration, Breitbart News reported.
The cases span multiple federal districts and strike at a basic rule of American elections: only U.S. citizens cast lawful federal ballots. One defendant is identified as an illegal immigrant. Others are lawful permanent residents accused of voting anyway. Two face allegations that have nothing to do with immigration status and everything to do with cheating the system cold.
Prosecutors say the conduct reached presidential and congressional contests in 2022 and 2024. Some of the alleged schemes ran for years before anyone stopped them.
In the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Hacina Saadi, 48, of France, is identified as the illegal immigrant charged with voting by an alien in the 2024 election. Three lawful permanent residents in that same district, Pakistani nationals Jamil Ahmad, 50, and Nighat Jamil, 47, and Portuguese national Paulo Silva, 54, were charged by information with the same offense for the 2024 race.
In the Southern District of Alabama, prosecutors charged Peruvian national Silvia Delgado Phelps and Jamaican national Staciann Pollion Davis by criminal complaint with voting as an alien.
Polish national Dawid Nalepa is accused of casting a 2024 ballot after entering the country around 2020 through the Visa Waiver Program. Pakistani national Arshed Zuberi and Filipino national Eliza M. Moss face criminal complaints for illegally voting in a federal election as aliens.
Canadian national Stanley Walton, 82, a lawful permanent resident, is charged with unlawfully voting in the 2022 general election. Canadian national Sandra Madeline Watson, 59, also a lawful permanent resident, is charged with illegal voting by an alien in a federal election after allegedly casting a ballot for president, vice president, or Congress while knowing she was not a citizen.
Cuban national Andre’s Garcia, 64, a lawful permanent resident, faces two counts of illegally voting in federal elections in November 2022 and November 2024. The Justice Department’s charging narrative is blunt about what he allegedly did and how long it went on.
"Cuban national Andre’s Garcia, 64, a lawful permanent resident, has been charged with two counts of illegally voting in federal elections in November 2022 and November 2024. Garcia knew he was not a U.S. citizen but nevertheless claimed to be one when registering to vote in 2004 and again in 2013. Garcia has allegedly voted regularly for the last 20 years in at least 15 elections, including at least 13 federal elections."
That is not a paperwork mix-up on one Tuesday. It is a registration lie, repeated, followed by years of ballots in races that decide who creates federal law.
British national Cary Ann Patterson, 59, a lawful permanent resident, is charged with illegally voting in a federal election as an alien. The complaint says she voted in November 2024. Court records described by the department go back much further.
"British national Cary Ann Patterson, 59, a lawful permanent resident, has been charged with illegally voting in a federal election as an alien. The complaint alleges that Patterson voted in November 2024. According to court documents, in 2005, the Gallia County Board of Elections received a voter registration card for Patterson in which “Yes” was marked in response to the question, “Are you a U.S. citizen?” Based on Gallia County Board of Elections records, Patterson allegedly voted in at least 10 elections as an alien."
A citizenship checkbox in 2005. A trail of elections after that. A federal charge only now. Voters who followed the rules had no way to know another ballot in those counts should never have been there.
Lizabeth Almonte Rosa, 24, a naturalized U.S. citizen from the Dominican Republic, was charged by criminal complaint with voting by an alien in a federal election and unlawfully procuring citizenship. Filings and statements in court, as described by the department, say she was not a citizen when she was registered to vote.
That pairing matters. It ties a ballot to the integrity of the naturalization process itself, not only to a single election night.
Not every case in the announcement turns on immigration status. Forrest Scott Woody, 68, of Hendersonville, North Carolina, is charged with illegally voting more than once.
"Forrest Scott Woody, 68, of Hendersonville, North Carolina, has been charged with illegally voting more than once. According to the indictment, Woody voted twice in the 2024 general election. In particular, he voted in Calhoun County, Alabama, after having already voted in the same election in Henderson County, North Carolina."
Two states. One election. Two ballots. That is the definition of diluting lawful votes.
Patrick Perea, 62, was indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of fraudulent voting. Prosecutors accuse him of trying to vote in the 2024 election on behalf of his dead wife through her absentee ballot.
Dead voters do not get a say. Living spouses do not get a second franchise by mail in someone else’s name.
The Monday cases land inside a broader Justice Department push on election fraud. Fox News reported Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald’s line on the stakes, and the department’s own warning to anyone tempted to cheat.
"America's elections are for Americans."
McDonald also said the Trump administration has charged 50 noncitizens with illegal voting. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin put the wider caseload in hard numbers: more than 1,620 open cases, 151 arrests, and more than 300,000 suspected cases under review.
The New York Post likewise reported the department’s crackdown language and the same enforcement tallies tied to noncitizen voting and related crimes, including McDonald’s count of 50 noncitizen charging decisions under the current administration.
"Let this be a warning to ANYONE trying to cheat and undermine our elections."
Just The News reported the Justice Department’s Monday announcement of election-crime charges aimed at foreign nationals across several states, part of the same pressure campaign on unlawful ballots ahead of high-turnout federal contests.
Federal law already bars noncitizens from voting in federal elections. These charges show how that ban fails when registration systems take a checked box on faith and wait years to catch up.
Breitbart noted that Democrats and establishment Republicans still oppose the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register for federal elections and a photo ID when voting. The same reporting pointed to polling that shows broad public support for both photo ID and proof of citizenship at the ballot box.
Garcia’s two-decade stretch, Patterson’s 2005 registration card, Woody’s two-state double vote, and Perea’s alleged use of a dead wife’s absentee ballot are not abstract policy arguments. They are concrete failures of verification. Lawful permanent residents are not citizens. Illegal immigrants are not citizens. A second ballot is not a civic extra. A deceased spouse’s ballot is not a family heirloom.
Charges are not convictions. Each defendant will have a day in court. The filings still answer a question voters have asked for years: does anyone enforce the citizenship line, or is it a slogan?
When prosecutors finally name names, the record shows the same pattern, weak front-end checks, long gaps, and ballots that should never have been counted. Secure elections start with citizens only, ID that means something, and a Justice Department willing to treat fraud as a crime rather than a talking point.
