10 Non-Citizens Charged With Illegal Voting in Minnesota

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced grand jury indictments against 10 foreign nationals who allegedly registered and voted illegally in Minnesota in the 2022, 2024, and 2026 elections.

The suspects are all lawful permanent residents from various countries ranging from Bosnia to Brazil to Ghana. 

This kind of fraud “erodes public trust in our electoral system, and it’s vital that we do everything we can to restore that trust,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a press conference in Minnesota on Sept. 30.

“The most basic way the Department of Justice can accomplish this restoration of trust is by working to make sure the only people voting in an election in the United States are American citizens who are eligible to vote,” he said.

Eight of the 10 suspects are accused of “making a false claim of citizenship in order to vote,” which carries penalties of up to five years in prison and three years of supervised release, along with up to a $250,000 fine.

All 10 have been charged with “voting by an alien,” a misdemeanor that carries up to one year in prison and a maximum fine of $100,000.

The Sept. 30 announcement comes on the heels of similar DOJ indictments in recent weeks, and is part of a broader push by President Donald Trump’s administration to prevent illegal voting by non-citizens.

Blanche said the federal government has brought more than 90 such cases under Trump, with 50 over the last five weeks, and that “there are hundreds of investigations that are ongoing across the country.”

“I’m confident that at some point the media will actually start reporting it,” he said. He contrasted those numbers to the 13 cases brought during President Joe Biden’s entire presidency. 

One reporter questioned whether the fraud was really “an issue the media ignores,” since the latest report involved only 10 cases spanning four years, and whether it’s the Justice Department’s role to declare that elections are fraudulent.   

“We talked about 22 cases last week. We talked about 15 cases the week before,” Blanche responded. “So, I don’t know what the number is that will work for you guys. Whether it’s 106, maybe it’s 120.”

The announcement comes less than a week after the U.S. Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the go-ahead to use an updated version of the government’s citizenship verification program to check for non-citizen voting.

The new Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system includes data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to screen more than one person at a time.

The program has faced legal pushback from groups such as the League of Women Voters, which alleges it violates privacy laws and is incorrectly flagging people as non-citizens.