Two Nigerian nationals are among seven foreign nationals arrested in Texas over alleged offences connected to the 2024 US general election….
Two Nigerian nationals are among seven foreign nationals arrested in Texas over alleged offences connected to the 2024 US general election.
The arrests were announced by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday, following a joint investigation involving his office, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations.
The Nigerians were identified as Helen Mayen Adams and Joshua Nmelichukwu Akpom.
According to the Texas Attorney General’s Office, Adams was arrested on charges of voting by an alien and making false statements of citizenship to register to vote. Akpom, meanwhile, was arrested for alleged false statements in relation to naturalisation.
The other five defendants are Indian national Khalwinder Singh Bhengura, Mexican nationals Carlos Salas Barrios, Moises Anwar Arellano-Alba and Rocio Thrasher, and Democratic Republic of Congo national Celestin Kuasa Katubadi.
The authorities said Adams, Bhengura, Arellano-Alba, Thrasher and Katubadi face charges of voting by an alien and making false statements of citizenship to register to vote.
Barrios was charged with voting by an alien, while Akpom faces the separate naturalisation-related charge.
Prosecutors allege that some of the defendants participated in the November 2024 election despite not being US citizens and, in some cases, falsely claimed citizenship when registering to vote.
In Akpom’s case, prosecutors allege that he had voted in the 2018 general election but was not charged over that alleged voting offence because the applicable statute of limitations had expired.
The cases are being handled in Tarrant County, Texas, and remain pending in federal court. The allegations have not been established as convictions.
The arrests came as Texas authorities continue investigations into possible non-citizen voting.
The Texas Secretary of State’s Office said separately that it had referred 117 potential cases of non-citizen voting to the Attorney General’s Office for investigation.
The state had previously identified 2,724 registered voters as potential non-citizens through a review of its voter rolls.
Further checks subsequently confirmed 578 of those voters were US citizens, including 506 whose citizenship had been established through passport information that was added to the federal verification system after the initial review.
Texas Attorney General Paxton said the investigations were aimed at enforcing laws restricting participation in elections to eligible voters.
The latest arrests form part of a wider federal crackdown on alleged non-citizen voting and false claims of US citizenship.
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