California’s federal prosecutors have charged 28 green-card holders with lying about their citizenship to get on the voter rolls. They are not going to be the last. The Justice Department says the 20,000 names it handed the state are only “the floor,” and federal officials have flagged 17,000 more records.
First, credit where it is due. Bill Essayli, who leads the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles as first assistant U.S. attorney; Adam Gordon in San Diego; Eric Grant in Sacramento; and Craig Missakian in San Francisco are doing a good job protecting the voting rights of American citizens. Every vote cast by a noncitizen dilutes the vote of a citizen. These four prosecutors are treating that for what it is: a crime against every lawful voter in California.
So here is my proposal to them. Offer amnesty — a written promise not to prosecute — to every lawful permanent resident who registered to vote but never cast a ballot, on one condition: they come forward within 60 days and cancel the registration. And prosecute every noncitizen who actually voted, to the fullest extent of the law.
Why the line belongs at the ballot
Registering under a false claim of citizenship is a crime. But a registration that was never used did no harm to anyone’s vote. Many of these people were pushed through a system built to sign them up with as little friction as possible. Clearing them off the rolls quickly protects the next election. Spending years prosecuting them does not.
And there are a lot of them. When Los Angeles County checked a sample of the federal list, it found that 71.2% of the people in it had never voted. An amnesty would reach exactly that group, and give each of them a reason to take their own name off the rolls.
Voting is different. A noncitizen who casts a ballot dilutes — and can cancel out — the vote of a citizen. Each of these voters swore — under penalty of perjury — that they were a citizen, then used that lie to help choose who governs the rest of us. Of the 28 charged this week, the Justice Department says 22 are accused of voting.
The law is clear. Falsely claiming citizenship to register or vote carries up to five years in federal prison. Voting as a noncitizen in a federal election is a separate federal crime, punishable by up to a year. And federal immigration law says any noncitizen who votes illegally is deportable.
We are told that some of them were confused, that they thought they could vote because a DMV clerk, a form or a neighbor told them so. Maybe. It doesn’t matter. Each one signed a statement saying they were a citizen. They were not. If they voted, they broke the law, and they should pay for it.
Sacramento built this
But the permanent residents aren’t the only ones at fault.
California registers people automatically when they get or renew a driver’s license. The only thing standing between a green-card holder and the voter rolls is a citizenship question they answer themselves. Los Angeles County’s own election officials have now admitted in sworn court filings that the county “accepts the under oath representation” of citizenship, “requires no additional verification,” and “has no information beyond the voter’s own attestation with which to determine citizenship.” In other words: check the box, and you’re in.
There is a tool that could catch this. The federal SAVE program checks citizenship and immigration status. Since April 2025, it has been free for state and county election offices. California refuses to use it. Secretary of State Shirley Weber said last month that the state has no “intention to use this concerning database” and “will not be participating in this charade.” When the Justice Department asked the state to simply set aside ballots from people on its list until their citizenship could be confirmed, California refused that too.
Voter ID isn’t hard. Ask Mexico.
The simplest fix of all is voter ID, and Sacramento treats it like a threat. When Huntington Beach voters approved voter ID in 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that same year barring every California city from requiring identification at the polls.
Yet many of the permanent residents caught up in this already know exactly how voter ID works. Millions of them are Mexican citizens, and in Mexico you cannot vote without one. To get the INE card — Mexico’s credencial para votar — a citizen must show up in person at an INE office with a birth certificate, a photo ID and proof of address. There, the government photographs them, captures their signature and scans all ten of their fingerprints. That card is the voter ID, and Mexicans carry it everywhere.
If a Mexican citizen can manage ten fingerprints to vote in Mexico, a California citizen can manage showing a card to vote in California. So what are California’s Democrats so afraid of?
A choice, not an oversight
That is not an oversight. It is a choice, made again and again by the Democratic cartel that runs Sacramento: register as many people as possible, and decline every chance to check whether they are eligible. It has consequences. Some of them land on immigrants who believed what the state’s own system told them. All of them land on the citizens whose votes were cancelled out.
The U.S. attorneys have the tools. Offer amnesty to those who registered but never voted, and clear them off the rolls. Prosecute those who voted. And make sure every Californian knows who built the system that put them there.
This is opinion, separate from our news coverage. It also appears in San Diego Newsline.
Sources: U.S. Department of Justice — Justice Department Charges 28 Foreign Nationals in California for Election Crimes (Oct. 19, 2026) · Declaration of Monica Flores, Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, United States v. California, ECF 32-4 (Oct. 20, 2026) · Declaration of Aman Bhullar, ECF 32-3 (Oct. 20, 2026) · USCIS — SAVE transaction charges (charges eliminated for state and local agencies April 1, 2025) · California Secretary of State — statement on SAVE (Sept. 25, 2026) · 18 U.S.C. § 1015(f) — false claim of citizenship to register or vote · 18 U.S.C. § 611 — voting by aliens · 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(6) — deportability for unlawful voting · U.S. Department of Justice — U.S. Attorneys listing (Central, Eastern, Northern and Southern Districts of California) · Instituto Nacional Electoral — Trámite de la Credencial para Votar (documentos requeridos) · INE — Manual para la Operación de los Módulos de Atención Ciudadana ("La captación de las 10 huellas del ciudadano") · California SB 1174 (2024) — prohibits local voter identification requirements
