It was before dawn when Amandeep Kaur turned herself in to federal authorities in downtown Los Angeles last Monday. Wrapped in a tasseled shawl, she paced and shivered as she waited outside the courthouse. At 6:30 a.m., two plainclothes agents rounded the corner, served Ms.
Kaur her arrest warrant and walked her to an unmarked vehicle, where they lightly searched her. She would be fingerprinted and taken into custody before appearing in front of a judge that afternoon. Kaur, a 30-year-old from India, lives with her two young children, her husband and her in-laws in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.
She speaks little English and is a legal permanent resident of the United States. The government says in court documents that Ms. Kaur registered to vote in 2022, voted in the 2024 election — unlawfully, they say, because she is not a U.S. citizen — and then made false statements about that history on her naturalization application.
As of Friday, she was among more than 220 people across 28 states charged in connection with voting violations during President Trump’s second term — part of the administration’s far-reaching, monthslong effort to find, arrest and publicize instances of voter fraud. In the process, people like Ms. Kaur have been caught up in a disorienting and often demeaning experience: Taken by federal agents from their homes, or ordered to turn themselves in.
Portrayed as criminals by the country many of them are trying to become citizens of, with their names and faces circulating online. Forced to appear before judges, in some cases in shackles. Some people have been kept in custody for days.
At least one man remains in a Texas jail. Election officials in California and other states have condemned the government’s crackdown, saying its system for identifying suspected violators is severely flawed, based on incomplete information, and has been rife with mistakes, including targeting people who are citizens. The backdrop to the latest round of charges is the fierce midterm battle in which Democrats are in position to retake the House and possibly the Senate.
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