Feds charge 28 green-card holders with illegal voting in California, four from San Diego County

Federal prosecutors charged 28 noncitizens across California on Monday with registering to vote by falsely claiming to be U.S. citizens. Four of them live in San Diego County or used to.

All 28 are lawful permanent residents — green-card holders who are in the country legally but cannot vote in U.S. elections. Eleven were arrested Monday morning in what the Justice Department called "Operation Protect the Vote," a joint sweep by all four federal prosecutors' offices in California.

"Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen," Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said.

According to court documents, the defendants "knowingly and willfully lied under oath in their voter registration applications that they were U.S. citizens." Then, the Justice Department said, "their fraudulent voter registration applications were approved, and, in many cases, the defendants illegally voted in recent U.S. elections." Prosecutors say they later lied again on their citizenship applications, claiming they had never registered or voted.

The San Diego County cases

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California charged four people with falsely claiming citizenship to vote, attempting to obtain naturalization unlawfully, and making false statements under oath. According to the Justice Department:

- **José Probitsado Amaro**, 51, a citizen of the Philippines living in National City, registered by falsely claiming to be a citizen and voted in the November 2024 general election. - **Jennifer Jung**, 31, a Canadian national living in San Diego, registered by falsely claiming to be a citizen and voted in the November 2024 general election. - **Erick Ronaldo Soto Mendizábal**, 64, a citizen of Guatemala and former Oceanside resident now living in Moreno Valley, registered by falsely claiming to be a citizen and voted in the November 2024 general election. - **Pamele Arbués Line**, 56, a citizen of the Philippines living in Escondido, registered and voted in the November 2024 general election.

All four are also accused of lying in their naturalization paperwork about their voting history. The felony charges carry up to five years in federal prison. A criminal complaint is only an accusation, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

How a green-card holder ends up on the rolls

The Justice Department has not said how each defendant registered, and that will come out in court. But California's own rules show why a false answer is usually all it takes.

Under the state's Motor Voter program, which began in 2018, Californians who get or renew a driver's license or ID, or change their address at the DMV, are registered to vote automatically unless they opt out. Customers are asked whether they meet the voter eligibility requirements, including citizenship.

The Secretary of State's office answers the obvious question on its own website: "How will the DMV system ensure only U.S. Citizens are registered to vote?" The answer describes no document check and no check against federal immigration records. It says: "state law requires each person to declare, under penalty of perjury, that they meet all voter eligibility requirements, including citizenship."

That matters for green-card holders in particular. The state blocks one group from Motor Voter entirely — undocumented immigrants with AB 60 licenses, whose records the DMV is barred by law from sending to the Secretary of State. Legal permanent residents get standard licenses and go through the same DMV transaction as citizens. The only barrier between them and the voter rolls is how they answer the eligibility question.

The system has failed before even when people answered honestly. In October 2018, months after Motor Voter launched, the DMV told Secretary of State Alex Padilla that "approximately 1,500 customers may have been registered to vote in error," including noncitizens, after a processing mistake, ABC News reported. The state said none were undocumented and that the registrations were canceled.

California also lets people register and vote on the same day. Two of Monday's defendants are accused of doing exactly that: Giezell Viduya Adawag, 41, of Vacaville, who prosecutors say registered on the day of the November 2024 general election, falsely certified that she was a citizen, and voted that day; and Kamlesh Navnitlal Shah, 67, of Sacramento, who is accused of registering and voting on the same Election Day.

The 20,000-name list

McCotter said every one of the 28 appears on a list of more than 20,000 "likely noncitizen registrants" that federal officials gave California election officials on Oct. 13, asking the state to set their mail ballots aside until citizenship could be confirmed.

"California refused to look at that list," McCotter said. "Today's charges show exactly what that refusal puts at risk."

The state declined to hold the ballots, and the Justice Department sued Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan last week. Weber has called the federal claims "unsubstantiated," CBS News reported, and says state law already requires that only citizens register and that ineligible registrants be removed.

"Today's arrests prove what we have been saying," said Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. "California is mailing ballots to noncitizens, and they are refusing to comply with federal law."

The charges come as ballots for the November election are already in the mail. Last week, San Diego investigator Amy Reichert published records she says show a noncitizen registered as a Democrat and voted in California's 2024 presidential election, and the Justice Department earlier gave the state 48 hours to review its list.