W. Ellis Boyle, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, whose office brought nine of the 18 new illegal voting indictments. Official U.S. Department of Justice photo (public domain).
North Carolina illegal voting charges reached 30 this year after the Justice Department announced indictments of 18 more noncitizens on Oct. 29, accusing them of voting in the 2024 election. Seventeen of the 18 are lawful permanent residents, and for them the criminal case may be the smaller problem: the conduct alleged can cost a green card holder permanent residence, with almost no way to ask for forgiveness.
The new cases were brought in all three of the state’s federal districts. The Eastern District accounts for nine, which the department says brings its total to 21, including 12 people indicted earlier this year. The Middle District filed five and the Western District four. The only defendant described as being in the country unlawfully is a Guatemalan man in Robeson County; the rest hold green cards.
| District | New defendants | Green card holders | Countries of origin named |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern | 9 | 8 | Guatemala, Italy/UK, Kenya, Bermuda, Singapore/UK, Jamaica, Colombia, UK, Greece/Canada |
| Middle | 5 | 5 | Netherlands, Mexico, Cuba, Barbados, Argentina |
| Western | 4 | 4 | Nigeria, Dominican Republic, France, St. Kitts and Nevis |
| Total | 18 | 17 | All three districts |
The profile cuts against the image many people have of noncitizen voting. The countries listed run from Britain, Italy, the Netherlands and France to Jamaica, Barbados, Nigeria and Kenya, and the ages the department gave range from 43 to 74. It fits a pattern in the department’s recent roundups: of the 48 people in its five-state announcement on Oct. 26, 47 were green card holders.
Sixteen of the 18 face two counts: a false claim of U.S. citizenship to register or vote, which carries up to five years in prison, and voting by an alien, a misdemeanor with a one-year maximum. One Middle District and one Western District defendant were charged only with the misdemeanor, by information rather than indictment. Those penalties match the two federal statutes usually used in these cases, 18 U.S.C. 1015(f) and 18 U.S.C. 611. The release says some Eastern District defendants voted in several past elections, and that the Western District cases involve an “Authorization to Vote” form and an early-voting application. It does not say how the voters were identified. The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations handled the investigations. Every defendant is presumed innocent.
The immigration penalty outweighs the criminal one
Immigration law treats unlawful voting more harshly than criminal law does. Under section 237(a)(6) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, a noncitizen who has voted in violation of any federal, state or local law is deportable, and a separate ground covers false claims of citizenship. Neither requires a conviction; the conduct is enough, so an acquittal or a dismissed count does not end the immigration exposure. The same conduct also makes a person inadmissible and blocks the good moral character finding needed to naturalize.
The statute offers one narrow exception, not a general waiver. It protects only a person whose natural parents are or were U.S. citizens, who lived in the United States before turning 16, and who reasonably believed at the time that he or she was a citizen. Most of the people charged in North Carolina will not fit it. That makes the immigration consequences of any plea a central question in each of these cases.
How officials are framing it
Prosecutors are making a case about margins. Western District U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson pointed to North Carolina’s 2025 municipal elections, saying 14 races were decided by two votes, 15 by one vote, and seven ended in ties. “Every vote matters,” he said. Eastern District U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle said the indictments make clear “we will not tolerate illegal voting in North Carolina.” The release does not claim that any of the charged ballots changed an outcome.
The announcement lands days before the Nov. 3 midterms and amid a wider fight over how far federal authorities can reach into state election administration. A federal judge this week refused DOJ’s bid to hold back about 20,000 California ballots, and voting rights groups have sued over USCIS’s Unlawful Voter Initiative. Earlier North Carolina cases grew out of a state check of its voter rolls, as covered here earlier this month, and the steady pace of new filings suggests more cases are in the pipeline there.
For green card holders who are unsure whether they ever registered, the safest step is to check their state voter record before any travel, renewal or naturalization filing, since USCIS asks about registration and voting on Form N-400.
This article is for general information and is not legal advice.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Justice: Justice Department Charges 18 More in North Carolina with Illegally Voting in 2024 Election (Oct. 29, 2026)
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of North Carolina: earlier indictments announced Oct. 15, 2026
- 8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(3)(D) and (a)(6) (INA 237, deportability for false citizenship claims and unlawful voting)
- 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(10)(D) (INA 212, inadmissibility for unlawful voters)
- 18 U.S.C. 611 (voting by aliens)
- 18 U.S.C. 1015(f) (false claim of citizenship to register or vote)
About the Author
