Seven noncitizens are facing federal charges in North Texas as part of a broad election-integrity investigation. The effort comes as the Trump administration intensifies its focus on alleged election crimes ahead of the midterm elections.
Fox News accompanied Homeland Security Investigations agents during arrests across the Dallas–Fort Worth region, observing firsthand how federal authorities are locating and building cases involving suspected noncitizen voting.
Ryan Raybould, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said six defendants were indicted on Sept. 10. A seventh person was charged through a criminal complaint filed the next day.
Agents took six suspects into custody in the days that followed. The seventh defendant, who had initially been viewed as a fugitive, later turned himself in to federal authorities.
Voters cast ballots at a polling station during an election. (iStock)
Raybould said one defendant, a Mexican national who was in the country illegally, had already been convicted in 2023 for making false statements on a passport application. “This person has already interacted with our office, the Department of Justice, and chose to then again commit a serious federal violation,” he said.
During an exclusive interview with Fox News, Raybould emphasized that the seven North Texas cases represent just the start of his office’s election-fraud enforcement efforts.
The Justice Department also announced earlier this month that five people in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Wisconsin had been charged in separate cases involving alleged unlawful voting or fraudulent voter registration connected to the 2022 and 2024 elections.
“It’s important to clean up our elections and make sure that they’re free and fair,” Raybould told Fox News.
He said his responsibility as a U.S. attorney is to pursue violations of federal law, whether they involve election misconduct, health care fraud or theft from American taxpayers. “If fraud happens … I’m going to go after it,” Raybould said.
According to Raybould, federal prosecutors are not concerned with which candidate may have received a disputed ballot. Their focus, he said, is whether the act itself violated federal law.
“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 government’s effort to identify possible noncitizen voters has prompted criticism from Democrats, who have questioned how federal investigators are obtaining and reviewing voter-registration data.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Alex Padilla of California released a complaint Monday from an anonymous Department of Homeland Security whistleblower. The complaint alleges that employees involved in DHS’s “Unlawful Voter Initiative” were instructed to access state voter records in ways that could violate state law.
DHS has rejected those allegations.
The Department of Homeland Security seal displayed. (Getty Images)
“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.
“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.”
American voters cast their ballots at a polling station during an election. (Reuters)
The seven non-citizens are charged with the following offenses:
- Helen Sayen Adams, is a 67-year-old citizen of Nigeria and lawful permanent resident (Green Card holder) since May 2024, is charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and false statement of citizenship in order to register to vote. Adams allegedly falsely claimed U.S. citizenship on a Texas voter-registration application in June 2024 and voted in the November 2024 general election in Tarrant County. She later admitted she was not a U.S. citizen.
- Joshua Nmelichukwu Akpom, is a 27-year-old citizen of Nigeria and lawful permanent resident since 2016, charged with false statements in relation to naturalization. As alleged, Akpom falsely denied on his 2026 naturalization application that he had ever claimed U.S. citizenship, registered to vote, or voted, despite registering in 2017 and voting in the 2018 general election. Due to the five-year statute of limitations, prosecutors relied on the naturalization offense rather than the voting conduct.
- Carlos Salas Barrios, is a 41-year-old Mexican citizen and lawful permanent resident since 2018, charged by complaint with allegedly voting by an alien in a Federal Election. Barrios unlawfully cast a provisional ballot in Tarrant County in the November 2024 general election despite not being a U.S. citizen and not being registered. Although the ballot was ultimately rejected, casting it was still unlawful under Texas and federal law.
- Khalwinder Singh Bhengura, is a 69-year-old citizen of India and lawful permanent resident since 2022, charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and false statement of citizenship in order to register to vote. Bhengura falsely claimed U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in January 2024 and again when applying for a Texas driver’s license later that year in August. He voted in the November 2024 general election and later admitted he knew he was not a citizen. He was arrested on Sept. 11.
- Celestin Katubadi, is a 20-year-old citizen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and lawful permanent resident, charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and false statement of citizenship in order to vote. Katubadi cast a provisional ballot in Tarrant County during the November 2024 general election after falsely claiming U.S. citizenship on an affidavit of provisional-voter. Although his ballot was rejected, casting it was still unlawful by Texas and federal law.
- Rocio Thrasher, is a 38-year-old Mexican citizen and lawful permanent resident since 2017, charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and false statement of citizenship in order to register to vote. According to the indictment, Thrasher allegedly falsely declared U.S. citizenship when registering in June 2024 and voted in the November 2024 general election. She later admitted knowing she was not a citizen.
- Moises Anwar Arellano Alba, is a 36-year-old illegal alien from Mexico ordered deported in July, charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and false statement of citizenship in order to register to vote. He allegedly falsely claimed U.S. citizenship when applying for a Texas driver’s license in 2023 and voted early in the 2024 general election in Dallas County despite being a noncitizen and convicted felon. He admitted in immigration proceedings that he had voted. Arellano Alba was a fugitive until this morning when he surrendered himself to federal agents.
