A Mexican national has been arrested by federal agents after allegedly voting in U.S. elections despite not being an American citizen.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE’s) Homeland Security Investigations agents in El Paso, Texas, arrested Ludwig Uriel Espejo-Carrillo, an alien from Mexico, on Sept. 3. The arrest comes amid a wave of recent arrests and charges against noncitizens over election-related crimes.
Following Espejo-Carrillo’s arrest, the El Paso Homeland Security Investigations office administratively charged him with unlawful voting and a false claim to U.S. citizenship. Espejo-Carrillo allegedly voted in U.S. elections in 2015, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“Only Americans should be electing American leaders,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement on Sept. 18.
In a Sept. 17 press release, DHS said Espejo-Carrillo became a lawful permanent resident in 2013.
Lawful permanent residents are noncitizens who are authorized to live permanently in the United States. However, they are not legally allowed to vote in federal, state, and most local elections.
Espejo-Carrillo remains in ICE custody pending his removal from the United States, DHS said.
“This is what a threat to our republic looks like. We cannot and will not allow the votes of American citizens to be canceled out by non-citizens illegally voting in our elections,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement.
The Epoch Times was unable to reach Espejo-Carrillo or his legal representative for comment.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas announced Tuesday that seven noncitizens had been charged on Sept. 10 and 11 with illegally voting in federal elections or falsely claiming U.S. citizenship.
In addition to the seven noncitizens charged in Texas, six other individuals were charged last week in California, Kansas, and Louisiana with election-related crimes.
Earlier this month, five individuals were also charged in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Wisconsin for crimes related to illegally voting in the 2022 and 2024 elections.
In July, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill revealed that a Motor Vehicle Commission software error improperly registered about 6,600 noncitizens to vote between June 2023 and June 2024.
However, fewer than 400 of the mistakenly registered individuals voted in U.S. elections, she said.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged U.S. lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act that would require people to provide documented proof of American citizenship before voting in federal elections.
However, the SAVE America Act has stalled in the Senate despite the House of Representatives passing the bill earlier this year.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in June that Republicans did not have the votes to remove the legislative filibuster and pass the legislation.
The U.S. Census Bureau released a report in August alleging that thousands of noncitizens might have voted in the November 2020 general election.
Out of almost 160 million voters in the 2020 election, the Census Bureau determined “with high confidence” that more than 128 million of the voters were citizens but that more than 24,000 of the voter records represented noncitizens. The report noted that more than 32 million voter records still needed to be analyzed.
Bis told The Epoch Times on Sept. 10 that the evidence of noncitizens voting in U.S. elections is growing.
“Despite extreme Democrats and the media claiming it never happens, the evidence of non-citizens registering and voting in our elections continues to pile up,” she said.
We had a problem loading this article. Please enable javascript or use a different browser. If the issue persists, please visit our help center.