Federal prosecutors charge six Texas green card holders in illegal voting crackdown, fueling partisan fight over election integrity and voter suppression ahead of November contests

Federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Texas charged six lawful permanent residents and one Mexican national on September 10 and 11, 2026, in connection with illegal voting in federal elections, including the November 2024 general election. According to U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould, the charges allege voting or attempting to vote using provisional ballots and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship on voter registration and government forms.

The six lawful permanent residents and one Mexican national charged in the Northern District of Texas allegedly voted or attempted to vote in federal elections, including the November 2024 general election in Texas, prosecutors said. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas announced that six defendants were indicted on Sept. 10, 2026, and a seventh was charged by criminal complaint on Sept. 11. All seven had either been arrested or surrendered to authorities by mid-September, with one previously considered a fugitive turning himself in, according to court records and statements from U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould.

The charges include “voting by an alien” and making false statements of U.S.

citizenship on voter registration and other government forms, federal officials said. Prosecutors allege the defendants cast ballots or tried to vote using provisional ballots that were rejected. Six of the defendants are lawful permanent residents from countries including Nigeria, Mexico, India, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, while the seventh is an undocumented Mexican national who had been ordered removed from the United States, according to court documents and media reports. U.S. Attorney Raybould noted that lawful permanent residents receive written notice in their green card materials that voting in federal elections is prohibited.

One named defendant, Helen Sayen Adams, a 67-year-old Nigerian citizen who obtained her green card in May 2024, is charged with falsely claiming U.S. citizenship on a Texas voter-registration application in June 2024 and voting in the November 2024 general election in Tarrant County, federal court records show. Adams later admitted she was not a U.S. citizen, contradicting her registration claim, prosecutors said. Other defendants are alleged to have either cast regular ballots or attempted to vote with provisional ballots that were not counted, while some reportedly lied about citizenship status on state voter registration forms and other official documents, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The alleged illegal voting activity spans at least the 2018 and 2024 election cycles, with a focus on the 2024 general election, officials said. Despite the charges, the number of allegedly illegal votes is extremely small compared to total turnout, with Texas voters casting more than 11.3 million ballots in 2024. Two of the provisional ballots cast by defendants were rejected and not counted, according to federal prosecutors.

The investigation is part of a multi-agency effort involving the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Texas Attorney General’s office under Ken Paxton. Paxton has separately publicized state-level probes into noncitizen voting, reporting investigations into more than 100 potential noncitizens casting over 200 ballots in the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, as well as 33 alleged noncitizen voters in the 2024 election. These state investigations run parallel to the federal prosecutions, according to statements from the Texas Attorney General’s office.

The defendants face federal charges that carry varying penalties. Voting illegally as a noncitizen can result in up to one year in federal prison per count, while making a knowing false claim of U.S. citizenship on voter registration forms can carry penalties of up to five years, according to federal statutes cited by prosecutors. Additionally, noncitizen defendants convicted of election offenses may face immigration consequences, including removal or deportation, as seen in prior Texas cases.

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche alerted reporters at the White House to expect a significant announcement regarding the federal crackdown on noncitizen voting ahead of the November contests, framing the Texas charges as part of a broader election-integrity operation. However, investigative reporting on noncitizen voting nationally indicates that prosecutions remain rare and that most cases involve lawful permanent residents rather than large-scale organized fraud, according to election law experts.

The cases are in the early stages of prosecution, with arraignments and pretrial proceedings scheduled in U.S. District Court for the six indicted defendants, while the seventh will proceed through the criminal complaint-to-indictment process. As of mid-September 2026, no trial dates had been announced. The prosecutions come amid heightened partisan debate over election security and voter suppression, with officials emphasizing enforcement of voting laws and critics warning about potential chilling effects on lawful immigrant voters.