State and federal law enforcement officials have announced charges against seven individuals accused of participating in federal elections despite lacking the necessary citizenship qualifications. This development comes amid ongoing scrutiny over voting eligibility in Texas.
The Texas Secretary of State’s Office has referred 117 potential cases of noncitizen voting to the Texas Attorney General for further investigation. Additionally, the office confirmed that 578 registered voters, previously flagged as potential noncitizens by a federal database, are indeed U.S. citizens.
The criminal charges, all stemming from Tarrant County, resulted from a collaborative effort involving the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, the FBI, and Homeland Security Investigations, as detailed in a press release from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Six of the accused individuals were indicted last week, while the seventh was charged via a criminal complaint.
Among those charged is Carlos Salas Barrios, a Mexican citizen arrested for voting in the 2024 election, although his ballot was ultimately rejected. Another individual, Nigerian national Joshua Nmelichukwu Akpom, faces charges for providing false information during the naturalization process. While he illegally voted in the 2018 general election, he was not charged for that offense due to the statute of limitations.
Other individuals facing charges include Nigerian national Helen Mayen Adams, Indian citizen Khalwinder Singh Bhengura, Mexican citizen Moises Anwar Arellano-Alba, Democratic Republic of the Congo national Celestin Katubadi, and Mexican citizen Rocio Thrasher. All are accused of voting illegally in the 2024 election and providing false statements regarding their citizenship to register to vote. Notably, Katubadi cast a provisional ballot that was later rejected.
Paxton’s office has not yet provided additional comments regarding these charges, and efforts to reach the individuals charged were unsuccessful.
With over 18 million registered voters in Texas, the seven individuals charged represent a minuscule portion of the electorate, which saw more than 11 million ballots cast in the November 2024 general election.
These charges come in the context of the Trump administration’s heightened focus on alleged noncitizen voter registration. The administration has allocated significant resources to investigate claims of voter fraud and noncitizen voting.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department charged five individuals across Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and New Jersey with crimes related to voting.
In a separate announcement, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office confirmed it had referred 117 potential noncitizen voting cases to the Attorney General for investigation. These cases are not linked to any specific election and are part of a broader initiative to ensure voter citizenship ahead of the upcoming November 3 election.
Last October, Texas officials provided counties with a list of 2,724 potential noncitizens, generated by cross-referencing the state’s voter rolls against a federal citizenship verification program known as SAVE. Following this, counties began investigating the flagged individuals, quickly identifying that many were legitimate U.S. citizens. Officials discovered that numerous flagged voters had registered through the Texas Department of Public Safety, which requires proof of citizenship, such as a passport, and retains copies of such documentation.
Initially, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office did not verify the flagged registrants against DPS records before forwarding the list to county election officials. This led to a lawsuit from voting rights advocates and Texas voters, who argued that the state should have conducted this verification. This lawsuit is currently ongoing in federal court.
In May, Texas officials announced their intention to check the DPS records. By July, Christina Adkins, the state elections director, indicated that some flagged voters had been confirmed as citizens, urging county officials to reinstate any voters incorrectly removed from the rolls.
In the latest announcement, officials confirmed citizenship for 578 voters, with 506 of those flagged due to their passport information not being uploaded to the federal SAVE program until after Texas’s initial checks.
Kristin Miles, president of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, stated that county registrars received instructions to reinstate the incorrectly flagged voters, expressing gratitude for the resolution brought about by state-level diligence.
