Federal immigration authorities arrested five non-citizens in Florida on voting charges, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations division arrested the suspects on October 21 and 22, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida. All five are Lawful Permanent Residents. They are Diane Wendy Curley, from Canada, charged with voting in 2022 and 2024; Luis Manuel Perez, from Cuba, charged with voting in 2022 and 2024; Jaimie Orlando Sosa Sardina, from Cuba, charged with registering and voting in 2022 and 2024; Pedro Igor Almeida Franco, from Brazil, charged with voting in 2024; and Lise Marie Johnson, from Canada, charged with registering and voting in 2021 and 2022.
Several of the suspects have prior criminal histories. Curley has convictions for battery on a law enforcement officer and arrests related to domestic violence. Sosa Sardina was convicted on two counts of aggravated battery on a police officer and has arrests for cocaine trafficking.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin tied the arrests to the Trump administration's focus on election integrity. "Every time a non-citizen votes, it steals the vote of a hard-working American citizen," he said in the announcement.
The Florida arrests are part of a wider federal enforcement effort. In recent months, authorities have arrested or charged multiple non-citizens for voting illegally in New Jersey, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Kansas. In August, Carlos Felipe Jaramillo-Grajales, from Colombia, was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to using identity theft to vote illegally for more than 20 years.