Seven Charged in Texas Over Noncitizen Voting as Trump Push Widens
Seven noncitizens in Texas face federal charges over illegal voting and false citizenship claims, part of a wider Trump administration focus.
Seven people who are not U.S. citizens have been charged in Texas with voting illegally in federal elections or falsely claiming citizenship, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas announced Tuesday.
District Attorney Ryan Raybould said investigators concluded the alleged conduct was neither a misunderstanding nor a paperwork error. His office did not allege that the seven acted in concert.
The charges were first flagged by U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who told reporters at a White House briefing earlier Tuesday that a "big development" on illegal voting in Texas was coming.
According to Raybould's office, some of the accused voted or tried to vote in the 2018 and 2024 general elections, while others falsely claimed citizenship on a driver's license or knowingly registered to vote. The defendants range in age from 20 to 69 and hold citizenship in countries including Mexico, India, Nigeria and Congo. Six are lawful permanent residents, and one had been ordered deported in July.
Voting by noncitizens is a felony and can lead to deportation. The announcement forms part of President Donald Trump's broader effort to highlight noncitizen voting before the midterm elections and to portray it as widespread, although research indicates it is rare.
Trump's other moves on the issue include pressing the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to voters confirmed as U.S. citizens — a plan the Supreme Court rejected Monday — and having the Justice Department sue to obtain detailed voter data in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Those lawsuits have not succeeded so far. Department of Homeland Security employees have also been reviewing state voter rolls for noncitizens, an effort a whistleblower statement released this week suggested could conflict with state laws.
In Texas, election officials investigated 2,724 registered voters flagged as possible noncitizens in 2025, after the secretary of state's office compared a federal citizenship database against the state's voter rolls. That office said Tuesday it had referred 117 cases to the Texas attorney general for investigation of potential noncitizen voting, after cross-checking the federal data against other agencies and passport records. The referrals amount to a tiny share of Texas's nearly 18 million registered voters.
One of the units involved in the investigation that produced Tuesday's charges is part of Attorney General Ken Paxton's office. Paxton is contesting one of the most closely watched U.S. Senate races this year against Democrat James Talarico.