Californians accused of voter fraud react with shock, confusion, anger

At the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles late Monday, a number of inexperienced card holders arrested in a crackdown on alleged California voter fraud expressed confusion over the fees — with some saying they’d no recollection of registering to vote, as Trump administration officers accuse them of doing.

Among them was Ana Domínguez, 60, a local of El Salvador dwelling in Long Beach as a lawful everlasting resident. Federal authorities accused her Monday of fraudulently registering to vote in July 2006 after which mendacity about it in her naturalization paperwork in March 2026.

Domínguez stated she didn’t have any reminiscence of registering to vote.

Another man accused of the identical crimes as Domínguez stated the identical: He wasn’t conscious of ever registering to vote, as federal prosecutors claimed he had.

Both had been among the many 28 folks charged with federal election-related crimes Monday, together with fraudulent voter registration and making false statements in a naturalization utility. Federal prosecutors and high-ranking Justice Department officers had touted the arrests throughout a information convention hours earlier than as proof that California elections are corrupted by noncitizen voters — as President Trump has lengthy alleged.

For these charged within the Central District of California, voter registration and public data confirmed at the very least two people who shared the names of defendants had been registered to vote as Republicans, two as Democrats, two as supporters of the Peace and Freedom Party and three with no social gathering choice chosen.

State officers stated the remoted situations of noncitizens voting, if correct, usually are not proof of widespread voter fraud. They additionally raised questions as as to whether the fees may very well be trusted to be correct, citing related accusations being disproved elsewhere within the nation.

Election specialists have stated many situations of noncitizens registering to vote are a results of administrative error or confusion on the a part of the immigrant — not intentional criminality.

“We know from previous expertise that generally folks register to vote by accident, as when there’s a mistake on the DMV,” Rick Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA School of Law, wrote Monday in a weblog submit. “There is just a criminal offense if the federal government can show willful violations of federal legislation.”

Four of the defendants charged Monday had preliminary courtroom appearances later that afternoon. Beforehand, greater than a dozen of their family members milled across the federal courthouse, antsy and clearly nervous.

One lady, her child and younger daughter in tow, struggled to seek out the precise courtroom. Another lady, Domínguez’s daughter, cried within the hallway as she waited for her mom’s case to get referred to as up. When Domínguez moved to face earlier than the decide, she blew a kiss to her husband and daughter within the second row of the gallery. She wore a black again brace and her legs had been cuffed.

A 3rd defendant — Omar Muñoz, 72, a lawful everlasting resident from Belize whose arrest at his residence in Commerce was captured by photographers in photographs transmitted across the planet — shuffled right into a courtroom shackled on the waist, his ft cuffed, nonetheless sporting the crimson and black pajama pants he’d been arrested in.

Muñoz was charged with fraudulently registering to vote in September 2019 after which voting in 2020, twice in 2022 and once more in 2024. He can be accused of mendacity on his utility to turn into a naturalized U.S. citizen when he claimed to have by no means falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen prior to now.

In the courtroom, Muñoz held a hand over his coronary heart as he waved to his household within the first row of the gallery.

Hasen, the UCLA knowledgeable, wrote that the federal government’s blasting out photographs of Muñoz being arrested was clearly “meant to convey that the issue of noncitizen voting in California is each pervasive and severe, crimes which are undetected by willfully ignorant California election officers.”

But the fact, he wrote, “is probably going far completely different,” with voter fraud restricted to remoted circumstances, some with much less nefarious intent.

First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, the highest federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, stated Monday that the circumstances characterize sturdy federal work to make sure that noncitizens aren’t negating the votes of eligible U.S. voters — an issue he stated California officers have refused to acknowledge regardless of federal authorities offering the proof.

Essayli dismissed the concept that these charged might have been unaware of what they had been doing. “You should exit of your option to register to vote; it’s not one thing that simply occurs to you,” Essayli stated.

José Antonio Bañuelos-Díaz, 42, a Mexican nationwide and West Adams resident, appeared in courtroom sporting a reflective vest with the title of a landscaping firm, blue denims and boots with the American flag on them. He’d been on his option to work when he was arrested.

During the hearings, the defendants spoke solely to acknowledge that they reviewed and understood the fees towards them. In each case, the federal prosecutor stated the federal government was not in search of detention.

The Justice of the Peace decide ordered the 4 launched on private recognizance and stated they weren’t required to be underneath supervision. They are all set to look in courtroom for a preliminary listening to Nov. 9. Their deputy federal public defenders didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Lliani Orantes, Muñoz’s daughter and a nurse who was born within the U.S., stated her father had been hauled out of the household residence by federal authorities after they swarmed and cordoned off the block. She stated the household was dashing to determine what occurred, together with whether or not Muñoz may have been confused with youthful kin of the identical title, together with a U.S.-born son who’s a registered voter.

Orantes additionally expressed frustration with the dealing with of her father’s arrest — to which federal authorities had clearly alerted some reporters, who had been introduced alongside for the raid.

She stated that her father is recovering from cervical surgical procedure, rotator cuff restore on a shoulder and a double knee alternative, and that he was pulled out of the household’s residence “like he was a canine” as a part of what she described as a “political ploy, an instance used for the operation” — which federal authorities dubbed “Operation Protect the Vote.”

“They’re making an attempt to instill worry in society,” she stated.

“We have a lot extra within the planet to be coping with, do we actually have to concentrate on these little issues that may very well be taken care of in a special trend? In a special approach? Like, hey, any individual from immigration go to the house,” she stated.

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta — who’s defending the state and prime election officers for the state and Los Angeles County towards a lawsuit from the Justice Department alleging they don’t seem to be treating alleged voter fraud by noncitizens severely sufficient — stated Monday that voting illegally is incorrect and “one-off, remoted incidents” of it needs to be prosecuted.

But Bonta denied that there’s widespread voter fraud within the state, referred to as 28 circumstances introduced out of the 23 million registered voters in California a “drop within the bucket,” and stated he’d be watching how these circumstances play out in courtroom.

“We’ll see what the details present, and whether or not they’ll should drop prices or whether or not they’ll be capable of prosecute,” he stated.

About 3 p.m. Monday, the 4 defendants on the downtown courthouse had been launched and exited the courtroom, some to relations ready within the hallway to hug them.

Domínguez wiped away tears as she recounted her arrest, displaying bruises on her wrists from {the handcuffs}.

“They had been accusing me of voter fraud since 2006,” she stated. Domínguez stated the accusations don’t even make sense contemplating she has by no means voted.

“If I might have dedicated all these frauds about voting registration and no matter they’re saying, since 2006, wouldn’t you think about that I might have been voting all these different years?” she requested.

In a visible presentation at their information convention, federal authorities alleged that 23 of the 28 folks charged had voted. Domínguez was not certainly one of them.

Domínguez stated that she’s been a lawful everlasting resident because the late Nineteen Eighties, and that she utilized for U.S. citizenship this yr. As a part of the appliance course of, she stated, she instructed an immigration agent that the one folks registered to vote in her family had been her husband, who beforehand grew to become a U.S. citizen, and her daughter, who was born within the nation.

Since then, Domínguez stated, she has simply been ready on the citizenship ceremony, “nevertheless it by no means got here by way of.”

Instead, she was arrested Monday when she was about to go away for work as an administrative assistant.

“I by no means, ever in my complete life … thought this may ever occur to me,” she stated.

Muñoz and his household gathered outdoors the courthouse. Muñoz, who declined to touch upon the fees towards him, stated he’d been as much as have espresso early that morning when he heard the commotion outdoors. Agents stated that if he didn’t open the door, they’d break it down.

He described seeing helicopters, at the very least eight vehicles and a number of other brokers from completely different businesses descending on his residence, and recalled pondering, “What film am I in?”

“That’s some huge cash. Taxpayers paying for that,” he stated. “They may have despatched me a letter saying report back to the courtroom.”

Muñoz — who stated he got here to the U.S. legally in 1975 and has “paid all my taxes” since — stated he defined to the arresting brokers that he’d had six surgical procedures just lately and so they “didn’t care.” He stated he didn’t be taught in regards to the prices towards him till 4 hours later.

Muñoz’s son, Omar Muñoz Jr., questioned why federal brokers didn’t take his father’s age and illnesses into consideration.

“We perceive that there’s a process that must be addressed at courtroom. But 5 within the morning, handcuffed? It’s simply the best way every thing was completed, and what my mother needed to undergo. It’s not simply an impression on my father’s well being, but additionally on my mother,” he stated. “There is a legislation, we perceive that. But harmless till confirmed responsible.”

Muñoz’s spouse, Esmeralda, echoed her son’s questions on why so many brokers had been deployed to their residence.

“Seriously? All these folks simply to come back for an aged individual,” she stated she instructed a federal agent. “It’s unbelievable.”

Times researcher Cary Schneider contributed to this report.