The United States Justice Department announced on Monday, October 19, that two Indian nationals were arrested in California over the weekend for alleged fraudulent voter registration.
They were part of 28 arrests in the state, included 11 on Monday, as part of a “coordinated effort among all four California-based United States Attorney’s Offices to combat and root out fraud in U.S. elections and protect electoral integrity,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
The DOJ said that all 28 arrested are “green card” holders. They face various criminal charges related to citizenship fraud, including registering on the electoral rolls in California despite being non-citizens.
Two Indian Nationals Arrested
The two Indian nationals were identified as 30-year-old Amandeep Kaur and 67-year-old Kamlesh Navnitlal Shah.
Kaur was identified as a resident of Rancho Palos Verdes in Los Angeles County, California. The DOJ said that he is seeking to become a US citizen but allegedly fraudulently registered to vote, first in the December 2022 midterm elections, and then the November 2024 general election.
Kamlesh Navnitlal Shah was identified as a resident of Sacramento, California. The DOJ alleged that Shah registered and cast a ballot in the 2024 US elections.
Some of 28 foreign nationals are charged with making false statements in naturalization applications. Some, like Shah and Kaur, face fraudulent voter registration charges, the DOJ said.
“Each of the 28 defendants charged today appears on the list of more than 20,000 likely noncitizen registrants we provided to California election officials last week,” a quote from California’s Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter included in the DOJ statement read.
“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.”
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First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli alleged “California is mailing ballots to noncitizens, and they are refusing to comply with federal law, which makes it a crime for noncitizens to vote. The voting rights of American citizens must be protected.”
On Monday, the Justice Department said that it has arrested 113 people in 20 states over the last seven weeks for alleged fraudulent voter registration. At least 50 of them were charged with voting as non-citizens.