Federal authorities in Texas have charged six lawful permanent residents and one undocumented immigrant for casting ballots in federal elections over the last eight years, marking the latest move in a government wide crackdown on non citizen voting. The announcement came after U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche teased a significant development from the White House, though critics argue the actual scale of the arrests fails to match the administration’s rhetoric. While several individuals reportedly voted in the recent general election, officials noted that two of those ballots were provisional and never actually counted.
The legal actions follow long standing claims by Donald Trump that non citizen voting is widespread across the country, despite evidence suggesting such instances are rare. In Texas alone, where more than eleven million people cast their votes in the most recent cycle, only four illegal votes appear to have been erroneously counted. These included three green card holders from India, Mexico, and Nigeria along with one undocumented immigrant from Mexico. Many observers suggest these individuals may have simply been confused about their eligibility, as permanent residents can legally vote in certain local jurisdictions in states like California and Vermont.
Despite the statistically negligible impact of these few votes on an election decided by over fifteen hundred thousand votes, the administration has treated the cases as major victories. To emphasize the point, a Fox News crew was invited to film the arrest of a twenty seven year old Nigerian national who allegedly voted back in 2018. The footage aired repeatedly on the network, providing fuel for hosts who used the incident to validate concerns over voter fraud regardless of how infrequently it occurs relative to total turnout.