Three Zambian players for National Women's Soccer League teams are not yet able to return to the United State following an international match because of U.S. travel protocols surrounding the Ebola outbreak.
Barbra Banda of the Orlando Pride, Racheal Kundananji of the Chicago Stars and Prisca Chilufya of Angel City took part in an Oct. 8 match in Uganda.
“Following their participation with the Zambian Women’s National Team during the recent international window, several players are currently observing U.S. government public health re-entry protocols required for travelers returning from the East African region,” the NWSL said in a statement Friday. "The NWSL is working with its clubs and U.S. immigration to ensure the players’ safe return; all players are in excellent health.
Zambia played a two-legged series with Uganda as part of qualification for the 2028 Los Angele Olympics earlier this month. The first match was in Uganda, where there were 20 confirmed cases of Ebola this summer.
Zambia fell 2-1 loss to Uganda in the first match in Kampala, but won the second leg 4-1 that advanced Zambia 5-3 on aggregate.
The absence of those players comes at a crucial time in the NWSL season, with only two regular-season games left before the playoffs.
The United States has imposed a 21-day waiting or quarantine period for re-entry on travelers who have been in the Congo, Uganda and South Sudan due to to the Ebola outbreak.
The current Ebola outbreak was declared in mid-May after spreading in a remote part of eastern Congo. The nation's Health Ministry recently reported 9,066 confirmed cases and 4,381 deaths.
Last week, Kenya became the second country after Uganda to report an Ebola case imported from Congo.
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
FILE - Orlando Pride forward Barbra Banda looks on during an NWSL soccer match against the Chicago Stars, March 14, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is escalating its fight with California ahead of next month's midterm election, warning that local officials who process and tabulate ballots submitted by suspected noncitizen voters are putting themselves at risk of criminal investigation and potential prosecution.
The letter Friday from a senior Justice Department official and obtained first by The Associated Press is the latest salvo in an ongoing tussle with heavily Democratic California, coming just a day after the Trump administration sued the state to prevent it from counting mail ballots from people the federal government has identified as “likely” noncitizens until their immigration status can be confirmed.
“The legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring a federal crime are significant. Noncitizen voting in a federal election is a federal crime — and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally unlawful,” warns the letter from Trent McCotter, the acting deputy attorney general at the Justice Department.
It adds: “If persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime.”
The letter is addressed to the Los Angeles County Counsel's office and also is copied to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan, effectively putting the entire state on notice. Those offices and the state attorney general did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
It is unclear how many individuals the Justice Department might look to try to investigate and charge, though any federal criminal cases in the Los Angeles area would be handled by the office of Bill Essayli, the region's top federal prosecutor and one of the Justice Department officials who filed the federal complaint Thursday against California.
Sent less than three weeks before the Nov. 3 election, the letter adds to simmering tensions over voter rolls between California and the Justice Department and reflects the Trump administration's aggressive hunt for noncitizen voters. It has made the issue a priority this year, including by demanding detailed voter information — including dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers — from the states.
The Justice Department has charged about 90 people for various types of election misconduct so far this year, including 50 who are alleged to have voted as noncitizens. There were more than 227 million registered voters in the United States during the 2024 presidential election.
In July, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent letters to California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, alleging that as many as 250,000 noncitizens were registered in those states. Election officials there were skeptical of the claim, including Weber, the California secretary of state.
That same month, the Republican administration claimed Nevada had 1,500 noncitizen voters on its voter rolls. But after the federal government identified them to the state, the number of actual registered noncitizens turned out to be zero.
That experience is backed up by research and investigations in various states, which make clear that voting by noncitizens is extremely rare.
The Justice Department lawsuit was filed after California officials were given, and did not meet, a 48-hour deadline to review a password-protected thumb drive that contained a list of 20,000 names. The federal government says those are likely noncitizens who were sent ballots to participate in the Nov. 3 election, although the secretary of state said the administration has provided no evidence to support that claim. The state mails ballots to all registered voters.
Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor, said the letter “ups the ante by threatening election officials with potential criminal prosecution.”
“It is deplorable that rather than work cooperatively and assist states in their election administration responsibilities, the federal government is making escalating threats and unreasonable demands beyond its power in the middle of an ongoing election,” he said.
Justin Levitt, a former deputy assistant attorney general who teaches at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, dismissed the idea that an attempted prosecution of an election official using the letter’s rationale would hold up.
“Courts haven’t been buying what DOJ has been selling, and nothing in this letter is calibrated to change course,” he said. “Fortunately, election officials — not just in Los Angeles, but across the country — are equipped to stand up to aggressive bullying. And the law is on their side."
Over 23 million people are registered statewide, and a handful of competitive congressional races in other California districts could determine which party controls the U.S. House for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term.
The Justice Department's escalating threats against California come as Democratic lawmakers are urging DOJ to honor its longstanding policy of not interfering in U.S. elections.
Earlier Friday, Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Dick Durbin, D-Il., wrote to Attorney General Todd Blanche demanding that the Justice Department commit to not seizing ballots or other election materials before the midterm elections are certified.
Associated Press writers Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
FILE - Ballots are sorted the day after California's primary election at the LA County Ballot Processing Center, June 3, 2026, in City of Industry, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - Ballots are sorted the day after California's primary election at the LA County Ballot Processing Center, June 3, 2026, in City of Industry, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
