An upstate New York woman who says she only recently learned she wasn’t born in the U.S. has been charged with voting illegally, one of the latest arrests touted by the Trump administration as it hunts for noncitizen voters ahead of the midterm elections.
Marva Cook was adopted as a toddler and had always assumed she was a U.S. citizen, she told Homeland Security investigators earlier this month, according to the criminal complaint.
But in searching for her biological mother, the 66-year-old Syracuse resident, who starred on Syracuse University’s women’s basketball team decades ago, said she discovered she had a German birth certificate.
Federal prosecutors say Cook has had a green card for several years now, but she still cast ballots in recent elections despite not having citizenship.
She faces a single federal charge of voting by an alien stemming from her vote in the 2022 midterms.
The misdemeanor offense carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a fine up to $100,000, if convicted. Cook can also face deportation, under federal law.
Reached by phone Friday, Cook declined to discuss the criminal case, her voting record or her past efforts at becoming a citizen.
But she said she was “not thrilled” by her court appearance Wednesday as she was placed in shackles despite having voluntarily turned herself in just hours earlier.
“It was a difficult time,” Cook said. “I’m about kindness and service and doing for others as I want to be treated.”
She also said she appreciated the outpouring of support of community members, a number of whom accompanied her to court Wednesday.
“The prayers and the support is a big part of how I will get through this,” Cook said. “I have a deep faith that God will get me through it.”
Cook’s lawyer, Paul Tuck, also declined to discuss details of the criminal case Friday other than to say there are no upcoming hearings or filing deadlines. There are no pending immigration proceedings, he added, but Cook has an immigration lawyer in the event that changes.
Spokespersons for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III, whose upstate New York office is prosecuting the case, said Cook's arrest showed “voter fraud is rampant” in the state.
Other federal agencies amplified the statement on social media, even as the administration’s own investigations have demonstrated that such instances are incredibly rare and been shown not to change the outcome of elections.
“We cannot and will not allow the votes of American citizens to be canceled out by noncitizens illegally voting in our elections,” the Homeland Security wrote in a post on X that included Sarcone's statement.
In California, federal authorities on Monday charged more than two dozen legal permanent residents with illegally casting ballots or registering to vote. Weeks earlier, 10 people were charged in Minnesota with illegally voting over the last three elections.
Cook’s supporters, meanwhile, described her as a vital part of the local community where she had lived nearly all of her life and had starred in college basketball.
The Syracuse University athletics department confirmed Cook was the team’s leading scorer in the 1979-80 season, averaging 15 points per game. She also holds the school record for most steals in a single season.
Fred Daley, pastor at All Saints Church, said Cook is an active member of the parish who for years has been the church’s go-to Easter Bunny, decked out in full costume during the spring holiday season.
“If the government wanted to make a case, they chose the wrong person,” he said. “She’s a poster child of an amazing person. She’s highly respected throughout the community.”
Dale Avers, a parishioner who has known Cook for almost 20 years, described her as a “person of service” who “never sought limelight.” She said Cook supports low-income families and youth as the YMCA’s community school program director.
“I’m in total shock that they’re putting this much effort into this,” Avers said. “They understood the story. There was no intent. There’s no malice. There was no deception involved.”
FILE - The Department of Homeland Security logo is displayed during a news conference in Washington, Feb. 25, 2015. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Skye Blakely kept going. Through heartbreak. Through injury. Through doubt. Through all of it.
The American gymnast never gave up on herself, not after her dreams of Olympic glory ended one step short of a lifelong goal not once, but twice. Not after “shutting down” at times mentally as she wondered if it was all worth it.
The 21-year-old from Dallas kept faith in herself and in the process. She took two years off from competing in the all-around at the elite level after tearing her right Achilles at the 2024 Olympic trials, opting to patiently and painstakingly rebuild her body and her routines until she felt they were ready, and not a moment before.
That moment arrived on Friday at the 2026 world gymnastics championships, when Blakely put together four polished and confident routines that ended with happy tears and an all-around gold medal around her neck that even she didn't see coming.
“Throughout the meet, I was telling myself ‘Do it for the girl in 2021 and the girl in 2024 who couldn’t do everything, just fight for her,'” Blakely said after posting a total of 55.733, more than a half-point ahead of silver medalist Liudmila Roschina of Russia and bronze medalist Ke Qinqin of China. "That’s what I kept telling myself: ‘I am capable, I am ready’ and I made every version of myself extremely proud.”
And maybe a bit surprised. Blakely was a prodigy in 2021 when she injured her elbow at Olympic trials. She was a semi-longshot then to make the team. She wasn't in 2024. Blakely was in excellent position to head to Paris before shredding her Achilles during training the day before the start of the competition.
Rather than rush back, Blakely took her time, competing usually as an event specialist at the University of Florida. She did the all-around for the first time in two years at the U.S. championships in August but ran out of gas on the final day of the meet.
Not this time.
Two days after the U.S. saw its long run of gold medals in the team finals at worlds end with a second-place finish to resurgent China, Blakely became the ninth American woman to win her sport's biggest annual title.
“It truly means the world to me, knowing how much I have overcome, all of the hardship that I faced and the days that I wanted to give up or didn’t think it was possible,” Blakely said. "To see it really come to be tonight, is just, it makes me so proud of myself and makes me reflect on little me who would dream of this.”
Taking the floor two nights after the U.S.'s long gold-medal run in the team finals ended for a variety of reasons — from China's brilliance on beam to some uncharacteristic miscues on the same event by the Americans, Blakely included — she responded with the best meet of her life. So far, anyway.
When Blakely headed to beam on Friday for the third rotation, she was atop the leaderboard after an excellent start on vault followed by a bars routine that's as good as anything done by an American at the moment.
Still, beam is different, a 75-second test of nerves. There were no missed connections this time, as there were in the team final. There were rarely any wobbles either. Blakely's score of 14.200 kept her in front and turned her floor exercise largely into a victory lap.
The tears after she saluted the judges following a routine set to music personally curated by Blakely — including the instrumental from “Show Me What You Got” by rap icon Jay-Z — were real. So were the ones when her spot atop the sport became official about 15 minutes later.
Blakely then draped the American flag over her back while posing for the cameras, drinking in a moment a long time coming in more ways than one.
Algerian Kaylia Nemour's bid to become the first gymnast from Africa to win an all-around title at worlds ended with a fourth-place finish. The 19-year-old's finals got off to a rough start in her first rotation when her feet didn't land squarely on the springboard while vaulting, forcing her to do a simpler vault that cost her valuable points.
While Nemour recovered spectacularly thanks in large part to an uneven bars routine that is one of the hardest routines done on any apparatus by any gymnast — male or female — in the world, it wasn't quite enough to reach the podium.
American Claire Pease's hopes of joining Blakely on the medal stand ended when she hopped off beam on her way to a seventh-place finish.
While the picture figures to get considerably more crowded in the next two years ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, Blakely's perseverance and talent have thrust her into the conversation once again.
“I think it for sure sets me up and boosts my confidence for sure,” she said. "Especially knowing I have more to give.”
See AP’s full sports coverage here
Skye Blakely, of the United States, reacts after competing in the floor exercise during the women's all-around final at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Kaylia Nemour, of Algeria, competes in the the uneven bars during the women's all-around final at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Skye Blakely, of the United States, competes in the the uneven bars during the women's all-around final at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Skye Blakely, of the United States, competes in the vault during the women's all-around final at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Post)
Skye Blakely, of the United States, hugs her coach after competing in the floor exercise during the women's all-around final at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Skye Blakely, of the United States, celebrates after winning the gold medal in the women's all-around final at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
