CALIFORNIA, Oct 21, CMC – A Belizean national is among11 foreign nationals living in the United States who are among a total of 28 people charged with federal crimes, including that they fraudulently registered to vote in US elections.
Those arrested were also charged with casting illegal and fraudulently obtained ballots.
According to the US authorities, Omar Alexander Muñoz, 72, a Belizean national living in Commerce, fraudulently registered to vote in September 2019, claiming his was a US citizen.
They said Muñoz voted twice in 2022, and in 2024 and that he lied on his application to become a naturalized U.S. citizen when he falsely stated under oath to have never claimed to be a US citizen.
The arrests of the foreign nationals, mainly from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Pakistan, India and the Phillipines were carried out as part of “Operation Protect the Vote” – a coordinated effort among all four California-based United States Attorney’s Offices to combat and root out fraud in US elections and protect electoral integrity.
They said that all 28 foreign nationals charged are lawful permanent residents (LPRs), or “green card” holders, noting however that although LPRs have legal immigration status in the United States, they are not US citizens and are not permitted to vote in US elections.
The criminal charges include making false statements in a naturalization application and some of the defendants also are charged with fraudulent voter registration. Both charges are felonies that carry a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.
Earlier this month, the federal government provided a list of these individuals to California to ensure that their vote-by-mail ballots were set aside until these individuals’ citizenship status could be confirmed.
California declined to assist the federal government in setting aside their ballots, prompting a lawsuit by the United States that seeks a court order to prevent the unlawful dilution of American citizens’ votes and to uphold the integrity of our elections.
“Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen,” said Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter.
“Each of the 28 defendants charged appears on the list of more than 20,000 likely noncitizen registrants we provided to California election officials last week. California refused to look at that list. Today’s charges show exactly what that refusal puts at risk. California must verify the citizenship of those more than 20,000 registrants before mail-in ballots are counted.”
According to court documents, the defendants knowingly and willfully lied under oath in their voter registration applications that they were U.S. citizens to be permitted to vote in California. Their fraudulent voter registration applications were approved, and, in many cases, the defendants illegally voted in recent U.S. elections. They subsequently lied in their paperwork to become naturalized U.S. citizens that they had never claimed U.S. citizenship, nor had they registered to vote or voted in U.S. elections.
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