Seven people in Texas who are not U.S. citizens have been charged with illegally voting in federal elections or falsely claiming citizenship, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas announced Tuesday as part of a broader Trump administration focus on noncitizen voting.
District Attorney Ryan Raybould said investigators determined the alleged conduct was not a misunderstanding or paperwork error.
The announcement came amid President Donald Trump's broader efforts to draw attention to noncitizen voting ahead of the midterm elections and claim it's a widespread problem, even though research shows it to be rare. Voting by noncitizens is punishable as a felony and can result in deportation.
The Texas charges were previewed earlier Tuesday by U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche during a White House news conference. He told reporters there would be a “big development” on illegal voting in Texas.
Of those seven, Raybould’s office said, some voted while others attempted to vote in the 2024 and 2018 general elections. Others falsely claimed citizenship on a driver’s license or knowingly registered to vote. The office did not make any claim that the seven were colluding with each other.
Those charged ranged in age from 20 to 69 and had citizenship in countries including Mexico, India, Nigeria and Congo. Six of the seven charged were lawful permanent residents, according to a news release from Raybould's office. One had been ordered to be deported in July.
Trump’s efforts to turn the spotlight on noncitizen voting have included pushing the U.S. Postal Service to send mail ballots only to voters verified as U.S. citizens, a plan that was rejected Monday by the Supreme Court, and having the Justice Department sue to force the release of detailed voter data in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Those lawsuits have so far been unsuccessful.
Department of Homeland Security employees also have been examining state voter rolls in a hunt for noncitizens. A whistleblower statement released this week suggested the activity could run afoul of state laws.
In 2025, election officials in Texas investigated 2,724 registered voters flagged as potential noncitizens after the secretary of state’s office checked a federal database that is used to verify citizenship against the state's voter rolls.
That office announced Tuesday that it has referred 117 of those cases to the Texas attorney general's office for investigation of potential noncitizen voting after cross checking the results from the federal database with other agencies and passport information. That represents a minute fraction of the nearly 18 million registered voters in Texas.
One of the units involved in the investigation that led to the seven charges announced Tuesday is part of Attorney General Ken Paxton's office. Paxton is in one of the most closely watched U.S. Senate races this year against Democrat James Talarico.
Wilder is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche checks his watch as he speaks at a news briefing in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday to close most of the iconic performing arts venue just hours after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning President Donald Trump's name to the building.
In a social media post, Trump said the closure was needed for safety repairs. But he said the repairs, which Congress has allocated $257 million to cover, would only happen if the board was allowed to move forward with plans to add his name to the building. A federal judge has twice said that can't happen without the approval of Congress.
“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing," U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in the latest ruling Tuesday.
The Justice Department appealed the ruling. Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center's chairman last year by loyalists on the board, participated in the virtual board meeting and said on social media he'd given $17 million to an endowment intended to support the institution.
The meeting included testy exchanges at points between Trump and Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who has led the campaign to block efforts to memorialize the president at the Kennedy Center. At one point, Beatty referred to Trump as someone who caused “extreme harm,” according to a participant in the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Trump said Beatty was “incompetent” and “holding up everything.”
“You're holding up the whole country,” she responded.
White House spokesman Davis Ingle said, "Trump-deranged Dumocrats like Joyce Beatty oppose anything that celebrates the greatness of our country because they put America Last.”
The developments threw into limbo the fate of one of the nation's most prominent cultural institutions, a place where presidents, lawmakers and celebrities of all political ideologies have gathered for decades to recognize and celebrate the best in American arts and culture.
The venue's leaders have argued that the massive building, which began construction in 1965, was in dire need of renovations. A partial ceiling collapse in the building's main hallway earlier this month intensified the calls for renovations.
"The building is not currently built to last, the chairman knows that because he is among the best builders in the world,” Brian Ballard, Kennedy Center board member, said in a statement.
But Trump's insistence on a physical recognition of his work on the building, reminiscent of his tendency to add his name to buildings as a real estate developer, has been a persistent sticking point — alienating many of the institution's longtime supporters and facing repeated legal roadblocks.
The fight over the Kennedy Center marks a rare setback in Trump's second term bid to dramatically remake the nation's capital in his gilded tastes. He's demolished the East Wing of the White House and is replacing it with a ballroom and plans to build a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. He's also eyeing a golf course renovation along the Potomac River.
The Kennedy Center board voted in August to inscribe his name on the Kennedy Center's facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.” If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would also be renamed in Trump’s honor.
Cooper ruled in May that the Kennedy Center illegally added Trump’s name to the building, ordering it removed. The institution’s leaders complied in June but left a tarp and scaffolding in place where Trump’s name was once displayed.
Hanging over the hearing was the prospect that the administration may seek to demolish the Kennedy Center. In a filing last month, administration lawyers told the court that absent recognition of the president, the Kennedy Center would struggle to raise money for renovations. Without that money, they suggested, the building may need to be demolished, a prospect that alarmed some given Trump’s swift moves last year to dismantle the East Wing.
The Kennedy Center, the lawyers argued, “will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years.”
Laura Bligh holds a sign outside the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Security officials stand outside of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
A sign is placed on a gate outside the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, is seen, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Visitors walk at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
An sculpture of President John F. Kennedy is seen at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as seen from the Washington Monument, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
