Authorities charged an alleged illegal alien Wednesday with illegally registering to vote and voting in multiple elections. The charges come amid an ongoing legacy media campaign to undermine enforcement of voting laws, in part by claiming noncitizen voting rarely or never occurs.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita announced alongside Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt that Francisco Aguilar Romero, a Mexican national who is “in the United States illegally, and holds DACA status,” is being charged with felony violations for false or fraudulent voter registration, perjury, and voting by an ineligible person.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, Romero “freely admitted” to both registering to vote and voting in Indiana elections. Records show Romero registered to vote at a department of motor vehicles location “by completing the Voter Registration (VRG) form” in 2018 and later resubmitted, reverified, or amended it in 2023. The form only asks prospective voters to check a square box attesting under penalty of perjury that they are telling the truth about their citizenship status. On both forms the “YES” box was checked.
Romero claims he “was not provided with the information on the form and he did not fill out any of the information himself.” The affidavit of probable cause states the fields on both of Romero’s forms were “system generated” and “not handwritten.” Romero also claims DMV workers informed him he was eligible to vote, though DMV workers deny that they ever interacted with Romero.
Romero further attests that upon receiving a voter registration card, he went and voted successfully after “present[ing] his ID and voter registration card.”
Romero allegedly voted in the 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024 general elections, as well as a handful of off-year municipal elections.
[READ: WaPo Admits Many Democrat Voters Can’t Prove They’re Citizens]
Current federal law does not require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Early this year Republicans in the House passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act to require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and voter ID to cast a ballot. The legislation has stalled in the Senate, where a few RINOs joined forces with Democrats to prevent the legislation from passing. Notably, the Supreme Court has interpreted federal law to prohibit states from asking for documentary proof of citizenship for federal registration forms.
And while the current system allows prospective voters to use a Social Security number or driver’s license identification number to confirm a prospective voter’s identity, neither guarantees citizenship since noncitizens — like Romero– can obtain both of those items.
The Department of Homeland Security announced in July that there are more than 250,000 noncitizens illegally registered to vote in just four states alone: California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Nevada.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2