Forty-eight immigrants have been charged with voting illegally in a federal election or other election-related crimes, the Department of Justice announced on Oct. 26.
All but a few of the immigrants are accused of voting in federal elections, violating 18 U.S. Code, Section 611, which states, “It shall be unlawful for any alien to vote in any election held solely or in part for the purpose of electing a candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, Delegate from the District of Columbia, or Resident Commissioner.”
Each count carries a prison term of up to a year, and the possibility of a fine.
Most of the immigrants are legal permanent residents, but one, 73-year-old Alfredo Santiesteban, is an illegal immigrant from Cuba, federal prosecutors said.
Santiesteban voted in the 2024 presidential election, according to charging documents filed with the federal court in eastern Pennsylvania. He did not have an attorney listed on the court docket.
Others charged include Artur Kopacz, a 50-year-old national of Poland and a lawful permanent resident who allegedly voted in the 2022 midterms and the 2024 election, and Maricela Nazarín González, 43, of Mexico, who allegedly voted in elections in 2022, 2024, and 2025 despite not being a U.S. citizen.
A lawyer representing Kopacz told The Epoch Times in an email that the charges relate to his client being “misinformed that he could vote.”
González could not be reached for comment.
Other legal permanent residents were hit with election-related charges such as registering to vote and lying in their naturalization paperwork.
FBI agents in one of the cases found evidence that Carlos Antonio Galeas checked the box on voter application forms for “I am a U.S. citizen” in both 2012 and 2016, according to charging papers.
The Honduran national later allegedly checked a box on the application to become a naturalized U.S. citizen that said he had never claimed to be a U.S. citizen, and that he had never registered to vote.
Galeas did not have an attorney listed on the docket.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated one of the years in which Carlos Antonio Galeas allegedly checked the box on a voter application form claiming he was a U.S. citizen. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
