Mukeshkumar Somabhai Chaudhari, a national of India, faces federal immigration charges after authorities took him into custody on allegations that he cast a ballot in the 2024 US general election while purportedly misrepresenting himself as a citizen of the United States. Two counts have been brought against Chaudhari — one alleging that he submitted inaccurate information at the time of voting, and another alleging that he falsely claimed to hold US citizenship when registering on the electoral roll.
A conviction on any single count carries a potential prison term of five years, the Justice Department has stated. Court documents from the Department of Justice indicate that Chaudhari placed a signature on a voter certificate in Minnesota on November 5, 2024. Signing the form carried with it an obligation to declare, under oath or affirmation, that he held US citizenship. On September 10, a federal grand jury handed up an indictment naming Chaudhari, clearing the path for the criminal case against him to move forward in federal court.
Addressing what the administration describes as irregularities in the electoral process has been positioned as a leading item on its policy agenda. Trump, along with a group of allies, has repeatedly questioned whether the 2020 presidential race — the one he ultimately lost to Joe Biden — was conducted fairly. Figures drawn from a DHS review of state voter rolls and public records, as cited by Trump, put the number of non-citizens appearing on federal election registration lists at roughly 278,000.
Administration officials have called on lawmakers to advance legislation that would make documentary proof of citizenship and a government-issued photo ID mandatory for anyone casting a ballot in federal races. Progress on those measures has slowed, with legal specialists raising objections that tightened documentation rules stand to exclude a notable share of voters who are fully entitled to cast ballots, including many from minority groups.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin released a statement addressing non-citizens found to have cast ballots in US elections, indicating that those identified would face arrest along with potential criminal prosecution and removal from the country. The administration has stated a policy position that ballots cast by citizens will not be offset by votes attributed to individuals without legal authorization to participate in federal elections. Mullin expressed the view that voting in elections for national leadership positions ought to be limited to those holding citizenship.
Harmeet Dhillon, heading the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, told an audience that voting stands as a fundamental entitlement tied to citizenship, and that every eligible voter has a reasonable expectation of an electoral process designed to uphold that entitlement. Dhillon stated that prosecution of individuals who submit fraudulent citizenship declarations in order to cast a ballot falls within the Department's stated enforcement priorities. Dhillon also argued that the legitimacy of electoral processes rests on two conditions: restricting participation to those who meet citizenship requirements and ensuring no lawfully cast vote goes uncounted.
