The Trump administration went straight to the Supreme Court on Monday, filing an emergency application asking the justices to set aside more than 20,000 ballots tied to suspected noncitizens in California, with Election Day just hours away. Lower courts had already shot down the Justice Department’s earlier request to segregate the mail-in ballots, so the DOJ took the fight to the top.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli held a press conference Monday to explain exactly what’s at stake. There are many close elections in our system here. We have elections that are decided by less than twenty votes within recent memory here in California,” he said. “So every vote does matter. It doesn’t take many illegal votes to corrupt our elections, and every single one of the 34 people charged so far are all people who are on the list that we provided to the state of California.” California, naturally, has been about as cooperative as a cat at bath time.
Essayli was clear that the emergency request isn’t about trashing ballots on the spot. “It does not mean” the ballots “won’t be counted,” he said, explaining it just preserves the chance to verify citizenship in court before those votes are certified. He also made one thing plain: “We’re not waiting for that injunction; we’re moving forward with criminal prosecutions.” In other words, the DOJ is coming regardless of what California thinks about it.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter put it bluntly on social media, saying California “has refused to work with the Federal Government to protect against noncitizen voting, which dilutes lawful votes,” and that the DOJ filed the Supreme Court application to require the state to segregate the suspicious ballots DOJ noncitizen voter fraud case until citizenship can be verified. Six new green card holders were also charged Monday with registering or voting in federal elections. One Iranian national allegedly voted twice in 2024 before applying for citizenship this year. A Canadian citizen allegedly voted in both 2022 and 2024, then tried to cancel his registration in 2025 while admitting he was ineligible, and later applied for citizenship while claiming he had never voted. Bold strategy.
To date, 34 noncitizens have been charged with election-related crimes by the Trump administration, and all 34 appear on that same list of 20,000 suspects the DOJ provided to California officials. Five of the six newest defendants were already in custody by Monday afternoon. San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow joined the announcement and didn’t mince words. “If we as state and local prosecutors ignore this problem and don’t enforce the law, we may as well just erase that requirement of citizenship from our constitution,” Dow said. He added simply, “If you’re not a United States citizen, do not cast a ballot whether you’re registered or not.”
Dow also made a point that should embarrass California’s leadership into action, though don’t hold your breath. “Election integrity is not a Republican or a Democrat issue, it is an American issue and a Californian issue,” he said. The Supreme Court will now decide whether to act before the polls close Tuesday, while California continues its proud tradition of treating federal election law like a suggestion. The DOJ says it will pursue every legal avenue available, and with 20,000 suspect ballots and a midterm on the line, that pursuit isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
