Seven noncitizens have been charged in North Texas as part of a sweeping federal election-integrity operation, as the Trump administration ramps up its push to investigate and prosecute election-related crimes ahead of the midterms.
Fox News exclusively joined Homeland Security Investigations as federal agents carried out arrests in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, getting a firsthand look at how investigators are identifying and pursuing suspected cases of noncitizen voting.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Ryan Raybould, announced that six defendants were indicted on Sept. 10, while a seventh was charged with a criminal complaint the following day.
Federal agents arrested six of the defendants over the following several days, while a seventh, who had been considered a fugitive, surrendered to federal authorities.
“One of the individuals, an illegal alien from Mexico, actually was a 2023 convicted felon for lying on a passport application,” Raybould said. “So this person has already interacted with our office, the Department of Justice, and chose to then again commit a serious federal violation.”
In an exclusive one-on-one with Fox News, Raybould said the seven cases are only the beginning of his office’s efforts.
Earlier this month, the DOJ charged five people in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Wisconsin in cases involving alleged illegal voting or fraudulent registration during the 2022 or 2024 elections.
“It’s important to clean up our elections and make sure that they’re free and fair,” Raybould told Fox News.
“And my job as U.S. attorney is to prosecute cases and controversies. And so if fraud happens, whether it’s our elections, our health care fraud system, stealing from the American taxpayer, I’m going to go after it.”
Raybould said prosecutors are focused on whether federal law was broken, not which candidate received an allegedly illegal vote.
“We don’t even know who they voted for, frankly, like we don’t care,” Raybould said. “You can vote for whoever. That is not what we are focused on, it’s the act. You’re not allowed to vote if you’re an illegal alien.”
The federal effort to identify potential noncitizen voters has drawn scrutiny from Democrats over how investigators are accessing and analyzing voter information.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, (D-N.Y.), and Sen. Alex Padilla, (D-Calif.), on Monday made public a complaint from an anonymous DHS whistleblower alleging that personnel working on the department’s “Unlawful Voter Initiative” were directed to access state voter records in ways that may violate state laws.
DHS has pushed back on those allegations.
“The Department accessed publicly available data from states’ voter rolls and cross-referenced them with known aliens in our systems. It’s not rocket science; it’s an easy step to secure our elections,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News.
Asked about the allegations, U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould defended investigators’ use of federal databases and publicly available information.
“HSI has access to databases, and they have a right to access that database,” Raybould told Fox News.
“They also can cross-reference that database with publicly available information.”
Raybould compared the investigative approach to health care fraud cases, in which federal authorities analyze government data to identify potential outliers for further investigation.
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“We look at Medicaid data to identify outliers all the time, to pick targets,” Raybould said. “Everybody should be in favor of making sure that illegals do not vote in our elections.
Raybould said prosecuting election fraud should have bipartisan support.
“If someone is illegal, and they vote in an election, that draws down the value of the vote of American citizens, and so it also undermines our democracy, and the vote is absolutely critical,” Raybould said. “It’s how we elect our leaders. It’s an important voice for American citizens when they get to cast the ballot.”
The seven non-citizens are charged with the following offenses:
