Two Indian nationals are among 28 green card holders charged with election fraud in California, the US Department of Justice said in a statement on Monday.
According to the Justice Department, Amandeep Kaur (30) and Kamlesh Shah (67) have been charged with fraudulently registering as voters and casting their ballots in the November 2024 US elections.
It said of the 28 persons charged with election fraud, 11 have been arrested in early morning raids across the state under 'Operation Protect the Vote' to combat and root out fraud in US elections and uphold electoral integrity.
It was not immediately clear whether the two Indian nationals were among those arrested.
Shah is a resident of Sacramento and fraudulently registered to vote on the day of the November 2024 general election and voted that day, the Justice Department said.
Kaur, a resident of Rancho Palos Verdes, who is seeking to become a US citizen, fraudulently registered to vote in December 2022 and voted in the November 2024 US election, it said.
"All 28 foreign nationals charged are lawful permanent residents (LPRs), or 'green card' holders. Although LPRs have legal immigration status in the United States, they are not US citizens and are not permitted to vote in US elections," the Justice Department said.
The criminal charges include making false statements in a naturalisation application and some of the defendants also are charged with fraudulent voter registration. Both charges are felonies that carry a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.
"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," Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter told reporters in Los Angeles.
Before Monday, the Justice Department had charged about 90 people for various types of election misconduct so far this year, including 50 who are alleged to have voted as noncitizens. There were more than 227 million registered voters in the United States during the 2024 presidential election.
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