Almost a week ago U.S. District Judge David Carter told First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli that the “remedy” the federal government had available to it in regard to non-citizens voting in California elections was to prosecute them after-the-fact, rather than segregate the ballots of people the DOJ believes are likely non-citizens as they’re returned, and hold off on tabulating them until state officials can verify the person’s citizenship status. Carter said:
You have the right to bring that indictment against them, which is our traditional remedy, which has an absolute chilling effect…
If [the problem] is this big, you’ve got a remedy. For goodness sakes, go out and indict, you know – and we’ve got the ballots. Yes, you can’t match that, but you can the envelope,
Essayli and his colleagues in the other three federal judicial districts in California had already done just that on day one of Operation Protect the Vote, in which they announced charges against 28 lawful permanent residents (who all appeared on the list of 20,000 likely noncitizens the DOJ provided state elections officials) for allegedly illegally registering to vote and, in most cases, actually casting ballots in one or more elections.
In a Monday afternoon press conference, Essayli announced that six more people from that list “have been charged in federal criminal complaints alleging they illegally registered to vote and voted in California then lied about it on their forms to become naturalized United States citizens.” As of the time of the press conference five of those defendants were in custody, and law enforcement officers were in the midst of apprehending the sixth.
It would obviously be impossible for Essayli’s office, working alone, to prosecute every person on that list they could prove was not a citizen. So, he’s doing something California officials might not have anticipated: Teaming up with county District Attorneys in the state.
Obviously, we don’t have the ability the resources to go and arrest all 20 000 people, so we are teaming up with our local law enforcement. We’re local – teaming up with District Attorneys in the state of California, who are going to take on some of these cases in their own communities. And we think that’s an essential and an important initiative, because again, not only is it against federal law for non-citizens to vote, it’s also against state law.
Dan Dow, San Luis Obispo County District Attorney, joined Essayli at the conference to announce that his office had already charged one non-citizen with three felonies: voter registration fraud, perjury, and fraudulent voting. That individual allegedly registered to vote in 2016 then cast a ballot in the September 2021 gubernatorial recall election. Although the last felony allegedly occurred more than five years ago, Dow said that since the crime wasn’t discovered until October 23, 2026, a special allegation allows those crimes to be prosecuted now despite the passage of time.
That isn’t a great development for the people on that list.
Dow added that his office is currently investigating 16 other non-citizens and are “nearing a charging decision” in those cases.
These investigations and prosecutions aren’t a partisan issue, Dow said:
“Protecting the integrity of our elections is not a Republican or Democratic issue – it is an American and Californian responsibility. We appreciate our federal partners’ assistance and will independently investigate every credible allegation of illegal voting, follow the evidence, and enforce California law while safeguarding the rights of every accused person.”
With today’s arrests, a total of 34 defendants have been charged federally in Operation Protect the Vote, and every defendant was on the 20,000 person list that’s at the center of all of these court battles. Essayli confirmed that the people on the list are non-citizens who are here legally, but still not entitled to vote.
“Those are legal immigrants. Those are people who are voluntarily going through the immigration process. They’re trying to become a citizen. So, we’re not even talking about people in the country unlawfully. The 20 million people who have crossed over the border, we don’t even know who those people are, so we can’t look for them on the list.”
Charged today are the following individuals:
- Sirgalahad Camua, 43, a citizen of the Philippines who resides in Palmdale;
- Krystel Capi Valle, 31, a Mexican national living in Palmdale;
- Moria Dahan, 35, an Israeli national living in West Hills;
- Chad Goertz, 52, a Canadian citizen living in Agua Dulce;
- Mahyar Nikzad, 35, an Iranian national living in Canoga Park; and
- Gilberto Ruiz, 46, a citizen of Mexico who resides in Palmdale.
Essayli implored California election officials to work with his office, saying:
“There are thousands of suspected noncitizens on California’s voter rolls, and we renew our request for California to expeditiously work with us to verify the citizenship of those casting ballots in elections. Every illegal vote cast and counted cancels the legitimate vote of an American citizen. We will continue to arrest and prosecute those who threaten our democratic republic through unlawful vote dilution.”
Expect these prosecutions to continue for as long as it takes.
Editor’s Note: Republicans are fighting for election integrity by requiring proper identification to vote. It’s common sense, yet Democrats are spreading lies about the impact of such a measure.
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