The Justice Department has filed charges against 16 people in seven states for election crimes including illegal voting by noncitizens, part of a broader enforcement push that now counts 50 noncitizens charged and more than 300,000 suspected cases under review.

Eight of the 16 defendants are noncitizens living in Texas. The remaining cases stretch across Idaho, Georgia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Michigan, with charges ranging from illegal voting and fraudulent voter registration to wire fraud, passport fraud, and firearm offenses. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced charges against 11 of the defendants at the White House, calling the cases part of a direct response to noncitizens casting ballots in American elections.

"We are seeing illegal aliens voting," Blanche told reporters at the White House lectern.

The DOJ press release and Blanche's announcement came days apart. The release detailed all 16 cases; Blanche's earlier remarks at the White House focused on 11 individuals charged with illegally voting or fraudulently registering in the 2022 and 2024 elections. The information provided does not specify whether the two groups overlap or represent separate batches, but the combined picture is clear: the federal government is treating noncitizen voting as a criminal enforcement priority, not a bureaucratic footnote.

Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald, who heads the DOJ's Fraud Division, told Fox News that the Trump administration has now charged a total of 50 noncitizens with illegal voting. His framing was blunt.

"America's elections are for Americans."

A Venezuelan DACA recipient allegedly voted nine times over 16 years

Among the named defendants, the Georgia case stands out. Analiea Milliscent Eccles, described as a Venezuelan national and a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals protections, faces charges for voting as a noncitizen and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to vote. Federal prosecutors allege she voted nine times between 2008 and 2024, a span covering four presidential cycles.

That a DACA recipient could allegedly cast ballots for 16 years without detection raises hard questions about the safeguards states have in place to verify citizenship at the point of registration. DACA, the Obama-era program that shields certain illegal immigrants brought to the country as children from deportation, does not confer citizenship or legal voting rights. Eccles's case, if proven, would represent one of the longest-running individual instances of noncitizen voting to surface in the current enforcement wave.

The pattern is not limited to one state. Previous federal enforcement actions have targeted foreign nationals with criminal records who voted illegally in earlier election cycles, and the DOJ's latest round of charges only adds to the growing case count.

Idaho defendant faces a stack of charges beyond voting fraud

In Idaho, Avila Gomez, a Mexican national, faces an indictment that goes well beyond the ballot box. Prosecutors allege Gomez falsely claimed U.S. citizenship to register to vote and then cast ballots in both the May 2022 and November 2024 elections. But the indictment also includes wire fraud, passport fraud, identification-document fraud, and firearm-related charges, a combination that suggests a broader pattern of identity deception.

Federal law bars noncitizens from possessing firearms, and the passport and identification charges indicate Gomez allegedly used fraudulent documents beyond the voter registration context. Cases like this one illustrate how illegal voting can be one thread in a larger web of identity fraud that undermines multiple systems at once.

A similar dynamic has played out in other recent prosecutions. A Peruvian national in Kansas pleaded guilty to voting illegally in the 2024 election, another case where federal authorities pursued charges tied to noncitizen participation in American elections.

New Jersey defendant allegedly voted from 2016 through the 2024 presidential election

The New Jersey case involves Santana Coulibaly, described as a lawful permanent resident, meaning she held a green card but was not a U.S. citizen. Prosecutors allege Coulibaly registered to vote in 2016 and voted in federal elections through the 2024 presidential election. She also faces charges connected to her naturalization applications, though the specific nature of those charges is not detailed in the DOJ's public statements.

Lawful permanent residents occupy a distinct legal category: they may live and work in the United States legally, but they may not vote in federal elections. Coulibaly's case underscores that the enforcement effort is not limited to illegal immigrants. Green card holders who register and vote are also committing federal crimes, and the DOJ is now prosecuting them accordingly.

New Jersey has been a recurring location in these enforcement actions. The Department of Homeland Security previously charged four foreign nationals in the state for voting in federal elections, a case that drew attention to gaps in the state's voter verification process.

Massachusetts arrest puts a name to the unnamed state in the DOJ release

The DOJ's press release listed Massachusetts among the states where defendants were charged but did not name the individuals involved. Just The News reported that one of those defendants is Gladys Adaeze Okafor, a 56-year-old Nigerian national living in Lynn, Massachusetts. Okafor was arrested and charged with unlawful voting as a noncitizen after allegedly registering to vote twice, once in July 2022 and again in October 2023, falsely asserting U.S. citizenship on both registration cards.

Okafor then allegedly voted in the 2022 midterm elections and the 2024 presidential primary. If convicted, she faces up to one year in prison, a $100,000 fine, and potential deportation. Her case adds a concrete name and set of facts to the broader statistics the DOJ and DHS have been citing.

DHS says 300,000 suspected cases sit on its books

The individual prosecutions represent the visible tip of a much larger investigation. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Fox News that his department has more than 1,620 open cases, has made 151 arrests, and is reviewing an estimated 300,000 suspected cases of noncitizen voter activity. Mullin did not detail the evidentiary basis for the 300,000 figure, but his comments framed the current round of charges as an early phase, not a final tally.

The New York Post reported the same figures, confirming that the DOJ's action is part of a broader Trump administration enforcement effort that has now charged 50 noncitizens with illegal voting.

Mullin was direct about what each illegal vote means for the Americans whose ballots are supposed to decide elections.

"Every single vote that was at the hands of an illegal (immigrant), canceled out a citizen that was legally registered and able to vote."

The DOJ reinforced the message on social media, posting a warning aimed at anyone considering casting an illegal ballot: "If you are not allowed to vote in our elections, you shouldn't. And if you do, that's a CRIME. This isn't a partisan issue!" The post added: "Let this be a warning to ANYONE trying to cheat and undermine our elections. Spread the word!"

That public warning fits a pattern of escalating signals from federal law enforcement. The Justice Department previously warned election officials in all 50 states that they could face prosecution over noncitizen voting, putting local administrators on notice that the federal government considers this a priority enforcement area.

With midterms weeks away, the enforcement timeline carries political weight

The 2026 midterm elections are weeks away, and the timing of these charges is not incidental. Breitbart News noted that the DOJ's enforcement push is picking up speed as the next election cycle approaches, with the administration clearly signaling that it intends to prosecute noncitizen voting before, not after, the next round of ballots is cast.

The defendants named so far come from Venezuela, Mexico, Nigeria, and other countries. They include illegal immigrants, DACA recipients, and lawful permanent residents. Some allegedly voted once. Others, like Eccles in Georgia, allegedly voted repeatedly over more than a decade. The common thread is that none of them were U.S. citizens, and all of them allegedly cast ballots in American elections.

Cases like these also raise a question the DOJ has not yet answered publicly: how did these individuals register in the first place? Voter registration systems are supposed to screen for citizenship. When a noncitizen registers and votes nine times across 16 years without detection, the failure is not just the individual's, it belongs to every layer of the system that let it happen.

Other recent prosecutions have followed the same pattern. An Australian lawful permanent resident was charged with illegally voting in two federal elections, another case where a green card holder exploited a registration system that failed to catch the discrepancy.

For years, Americans were told noncitizen voting was a myth too rare to matter. Fifty federal charges, 151 arrests, 1,620 open cases, and 300,000 suspected cases later, the only myth left is that the system was working.