DOJ Charges 48 Noncitizens With Federal Voting Crimes; Left Notes Prosecutions Remain Few

The Justice Department announced Monday that it has arrested and charged 48 non-U.S. citizens in California, Florida, Nevada, New York and Pennsylvania with federal election-related crimes, including 28 in California. The charges include voting in federal elections, making false claims of U.S. citizenship to vote and making such claims to register to vote. Forty-seven of the 48 were lawful permanent residents, meaning green card holders, and one was in the country illegally. Noncitizens are not allowed to vote in state or federal elections, though illegal immigrants may vote in local elections in some cities. The cases are part of the Trump administration's push ahead of the midterm elections to remove noncitizens from state voter rolls. In recent weeks the department has also charged dozens of others, including 16 illegal immigrants, 10 of them in Minnesota. Supporters of the crackdown argue each illegal vote cancels out a citizen's vote, while opponents say noncitizen voting is rare.

Right-leaning Washington Examiner leads with the DOJ announcement and the number, 48 charged, with 28 in California in its headline. It describes the effort as a pre-election blitz, details the charges, notes that nearly all defendants were green card holders, and presents the views of both proponents and opponents of the crackdown. Left-leaning MS NOW, in the material available, focuses on California and on scale. Its headline says the DOJ is escalating threats over noncitizen voting while the number of cases there and nationwide remains low, and it says a survey of California cases since Trump's return found only a trickle of prosecutions. It also says the administration portrays noncitizen voting as a civil rights epidemic. Both sides cover the DOJ's focus on noncitizen voting and California, but the right presents the charges as a concrete enforcement result, while the left frames the same activity as small relative to the administration's rhetoric. Alternative and independent outlets had not reported this story at the time of writing; only left-leaning and right-leaning outlets had.