On Monday, federal authorities in California charged more than two dozen foreign nationals as part of a statewide operation targeting individuals whom officials say have unlawfully registered and cast ballots in U.S. elections.

The arrests constitute part of a Trump administration initiative to root out noncitizen voting ahead of next month's midterm elections, notwithstanding data indicating that the problem is exceedingly rare, difficult to prove and has not been demonstrated to alter the outcome of races.

They also reflect a further escalation in a simmering voter roll dispute between the federal government and California—a dispute that came into sharp focus last week when the Justice Department sued the state and subsequently warned that local election workers who knowingly process or tabulate ballots submitted by noncitizen voters risk investigation and potential prosecution.

The Justice Department said the 28 individuals charged as part of a sweep dubbed Operation Protect the Vote are lawful permanent residents — but not U.S. citizens who are permitted to legally vote.

They are charged with crimes including making false statements on a naturalization application and submitting fraudulent voter registrations.

“This inflicts tangible harm upon genuine elections and tangible harm upon American citizens,” Trent McCotter, the acting deputy attorney general at the Justice Department, said during a news conference in Los Angeles convened to announce the charges.

The federal government has made noncitizen voting a priority this year, demanding detailed voter information — including dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers — from the states.

While some states voluntarily furnished the information, the department sued 30 states and the District of Columbia in order to obtain it — litigation that has thus far proven unsuccessful.

The Justice Department announced Monday that it has charged 113 individuals across 20 states with illegal voting and illegal registration offenses over the past several weeks; it had earlier stated that it has charged approximately 90 people with various forms of election misconduct thus far this year, including 50 who are alleged to have voted as noncitizens.

More than 227 million registered voters existed in the United States during the 2024 presidential election.

Monday's operation enlisted the four U.S. attorneys' offices across California in what the Justice Department intended as a statewide demonstration of force.

Among the dozens of individuals apprehended was a 72-year-old man of Belizean birth, who stands accused of having cast ballots unlawfully across four elections.

Dozens of federal agents descended upon the man's residential cul-de-sac in Commerce, a small city in Los Angeles County, to effect the arrest.

The man, still in his pajamas, was handcuffed and taken into federal custody downtown.

Others emerged from the house to watch, questioning both the number of heavily armed officers present for the arrest and the necessity of handcuffs.

The arrests constituted the most recent development in a flurry of activity that has unfolded across heavily Democratic California—a state not conventionally regarded as a pivotal battleground but which nonetheless hosts a handful of competitive congressional races that could prove instrumental in determining which party controls the U.S. House for the final two years of President Donald Trump's term.

More than 23 million people are registered statewide.

The administration last week sued California in an effort to prevent it from tallying mail ballots cast by individuals whom the federal government has identified as “likely” noncitizens until their immigration status can be verified.

The complaint was lodged after California officials, having been afforded a 48-hour deadline to review a password-protected thumb drive containing a list of 20,000 names, failed to meet it.

The federal government maintains that those listed are likely noncitizens to whom ballots were sent for participation in the Nov. 3 election, although the secretary of state asserted that the administration has furnished no evidence in support of that claim.

The state mails ballots to all registered voters.

McCotter indicated that the figure of 20,000 was liable to rise.

"That constitutes nothing more than the floor," he remarked.

As part of its lawsuit, the Justice Department filed paperwork on Monday seeking a court order that would compel California to set aside ballots cast by suspected noncitizens and to verify their citizenship status—whether independently or in conjunction with the federal government—before tabulating their mail-in ballots.

The Justice Department requested that the order be entered in time for the Nov. 3 election.

Absent such an order, the government said, “there is a significant risk that American votes will be diluted.”

Requests for comment, dispatched on Monday to the secretary of state, the state attorney general and the governor’s office, had not been immediately reciprocated.

On Friday, the Justice Department followed up with a letter warning that state election officials who knowingly process ballots cast by noncitizen voters are at risk of investigation.

“The legal ramifications of either facilitating or turning a blind eye to a federal crime are considerable.

Noncitizen voting in a federal election constitutes a federal crime — and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally unlawful,” warns the letter from McCotter.

It adds: “If persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime.”

The letter is addressed to the Los Angeles County Counsel's office and is likewise copied to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan, thereby effectively placing the entire state on notice.

In his response to the letter, Logan stated that his office was committed to conducting a fair and secure election, while remarking that Election Day was a mere 18 days away.

“The U.S. Department of Justice has elected to litigate its unverified assertions of voting eligibility.

At this juncture, it is best that this be adjudicated in court,” he said.