A Mexican national who has held lawful permanent resident status for more than 15 years has been federally charged after prosecutors say she registered to vote in Texas and later cast a ballot in the 2024 general election.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas announced Thursday that Imelda Magallanes, 51, was federally charged Wednesday in Midland with one count of voting by an alien in a federal election.
According to court documents cited by prosecutors, Magallanes was granted lawful permanent resident status in December 2010 and renewed her permanent resident card in 2023.
Voting records from the Midland County Elections Office indicate that Magallanes first registered to vote in October 2020 using her Texas driver’s license as identification, according to the Justice Department.
Prosecutors allege she later voted in the November 2024 general election.
Magallanes is not accused of being in the United States illegally. She is a lawful permanent resident, commonly known as a green-card holder. Lawful permanent residence, however, does not confer the right to vote in federal elections.
Federal Law Bars Noncitizen Voting
Federal law generally prohibits an alien from voting in an election held in whole or in part to elect a president, vice president, presidential elector or member of Congress.
Under 18 U.S.C. § 611, a violation is punishable by up to one year in prison, a fine, or both.
The Justice Department said Magallanes faces up to one year in federal prison and a fine of up to $100,000 if convicted.
A federal judge would determine any sentence after considering federal sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
Registration Raises Questions About Citizenship Safeguards
The case puts renewed attention on how voter-registration systems identify applicants who are not U.S. citizens.
Prosecutors specifically stated that Magallanes used a Texas driver’s license as identification when she registered in October 2020.
The Justice Department’s announcement does not say that possession of the driver’s license caused Magallanes’ voter registration to be approved, nor does it allege misconduct by Midland County election officials.
It also does not say whether Magallanes affirmatively represented herself as a U.S. citizen when registering.
Texas requires U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
The state’s voter-registration process requires applicants to attest that they meet eligibility requirements, including citizenship.
Texas Referred 117 Cases For Investigation
The Midland prosecution comes after the Texas Secretary of State’s Office announced on September 15 that it had referred 117 cases to the Texas Attorney General’s Office for investigation of potential noncitizen voting.
That action followed a broader review of the state’s voter rolls using the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, database.
Last fall, Texas compared approximately 18 million registered voters with federal citizenship data and initially identified 2,724 potential noncitizens on the voter rolls.
Those registrations were sent to county voter registrars for additional review.
The Secretary of State’s Office later worked with the Texas Department of Public Safety and counties to manually review the cases.
The state said subsequent review showed 578 voters had demonstrated U.S. citizenship. Of those, citizenship was established for 506 because passport information had been added to the federal SAVE system after the state’s initial comparison.
The Secretary of State advised counties to reinstate those registrations if they had been removed.
The additional review ultimately resulted in 117 cases being referred to the Attorney General’s Office for investigation of potential noncitizen voting.
“By law and according to our Constitution, citizenship is a requirement to vote in Texas, and we have a duty to ensure that only eligible voters participate in our elections,” Secretary of State Robert Howden said in the September 15 release.
Howden also emphasized the state’s responsibility to protect eligible voters.
“We also have a responsibility to make sure eligible citizens can exercise their right to vote, which is why we are taking great care with this data and conducting additional layers of due diligence,” he added.
Follows North Texas Election Cases
The Dallas Express has reported on a series of recent federal cases involving allegations of unlawful voting or false citizenship claims.
On September 16, DX reported that seven noncitizens had been charged in North Texas cases involving alleged unlawful voting or false representations of U.S. citizenship.
Six were lawful permanent residents, according to federal prosecutors. One defendant, Moises Anwar Arellano-Alba, was identified by prosecutors as an illegal alien from Mexico who had been ordered deported.
On September 20, DX reported that Texas defendants accounted for eight of 16 people included in a broader Justice Department announcement involving alleged illegal voting, voter registration violations and related election crimes nationwide.
Investigation Continues
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations is investigating the Magallanes case.
The Justice Department has not disclosed how investigators identified Magallanes or whether her case arose from the state’s broader voter-registration review.
