Omar Muñoz, a 72-year-old lawful permanent resident in Los Angeles, was arrested early in the morning at his residence and subsequently charged with fraudulently registering to vote and making false statements on a citizenship application. The arrest involved multiple law enforcement vehicles, officers in tactical gear, a helicopter, and media documentation. A Department of Justice promotional video released the following day featured footage of the operation.
Muñoz was one of 28 green card holders charged in California by the Trump administration with illegal voter registration. According to reporting on cases tracked by Court Watch, approximately 40 people have been charged for voter fraud in recent weeks across the United States, with roughly 170 people charged for illegal voting since the start of the administration’s second term. The California Department of Justice has also filed suit against the state, alleging 20,000 noncitizens appear on voter rolls, though state officials dispute these claims and say eligible voters were wrongly flagged.
Legal experts and voting rights advocates raised concerns about the operation’s scope and presentation. Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Law School and former deputy assistant attorney general, characterized the justice department’s video as inappropriate partisan activity. Democracy experts described the heavy-handed enforcement approach as extraordinary for a nonviolent offense and noted the timing two weeks before midterm elections departed from traditional department practices of avoiding actions that could appear designed to influence contests.
Several defendants have expressed confusion about the charges. In rare instances where noncitizens become registered to vote, experts say this typically results from confusion about eligibility requirements, particularly in states with automatic voter registration systems. Voting rights advocates have characterized the administration’s enforcement campaign as an effort to create false impressions about voter fraud prevalence, though some observers questioned whether the strategy would succeed given public awareness of these efforts.
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