Armed Men at the Door: Trump’s Voter Fraud Witch Hunt Targets a 72-Year-Old in His Pajamas

Omar Muñoz was at home when federal agents showed up. The 72-year-old from Belize is a lawful permanent resident of the United States. He was arrested in his pajamas. Donald Trump’s administration is waging a campaign against supposedly ineligible voters, and suddenly an elderly man finds himself facing criminal charges, insisting he has never cast a ballot in an American election. His first thought when he saw the agents was frighteningly simple: “I looked around and said, ‘I’m not a killer.’”

One of the 11 people arrested in California’s voter fraud investigation tells me he has never registered to vote or cast a ballot.

Federal prosecutors allege that Muñoz registered to vote in Los Angeles County in September 2019 by falsely claiming U.S. citizenship. They allege he then voted in 4 elections, in 2020, twice in 2022, and in 2024. They also claim he falsely stated on a naturalization application that he had never represented himself as an American citizen. Muñoz denies it. He says he never registered and never voted. No court has found him guilty. His permanent resident status does not, in fact, entitle him to vote in federal elections.

Muñoz believes identity theft may be involved. He says someone previously used his name and Social Security number to work at a chocolate factory. That experience explains his suspicions, but it does not yet establish what happened with the alleged votes. That is exactly what investigators need to determine: Who filled out the paperwork? Who cast the ballots? A matching name in a database doesn't answer either question.

The California operation initially resulted in 11 arrests. In total, the Justice Department brought allegations against 28 people involving improper voter registration or other election offenses. According to the published information, all those involved are lawful permanent residents. The allegations vary from case to case. The number of arrests tells us nothing about how many instances of voter fraud have actually been proven. The investigations are ongoing, and the presumption of innocence still applies, although it doesn't seem to take up much room when armed men are standing at your front door.

“HSI protects the integrity of our elections by investigating voter fraud and holding those responsible accountable.” HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) is the investigative arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which operates under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

That's what the Trump administration calls its hunt for alleged voter fraudsters. Armed federal agents are showing up at people's doors while flawed voter rolls are putting even American citizens under suspicion. When a government intimidates people ahead of an election and then sells that intimidation as protecting democracy, it should have to answer one question: Who exactly does that democracy need protecting from now?

The great numbers game started earlier. The Justice Department sent California election officials a list of roughly 20,000 supposedly ineligible registered voters. According to local officials, only about 7,000 of them even had addresses in Los Angeles County. The list reportedly also included numerous people born in the United States. So American citizens themselves are ending up on a government list of suspects supposedly intended to keep ineligible people from voting. Filling a government file is a lot faster than checking whether what's inside it is true.

Since June, the Department of Homeland Security has been directing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pursue people suspected of voting illegally. Its investigative arm, Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, expanded its home visits in September. Armed federal agents are knocking on doors in multiple states, asking people about their immigration status and whether they have voted before. According to the documents reviewed, California and Georgia are among the states affected, along with Missouri and Pennsylvania. Washington and Wisconsin also appear in internal planning documents. Hundreds of agents were reportedly pulled away from other investigations for the operation.

Anyone can end up in HSI's crosshairs. “No, that's not the ice cream man knocking on your door without warning.”„

The administration justifies the operation as an effort to protect elections. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said HSI was investigating voter fraud wherever it could be found and that, under Trump, the agency was committed to ensuring that only American citizens elect American political leaders. That principle is already established by law. What gives it added force now is the sight of uniforms at people's front doors. Published footage shows armed investigators standing outside homes. One image from Kansas City shows a woman holding a child's hand in front of the agents. Mariana Alexandra Dewey, a Peruvian woman involved in the case, has been charged with several alleged election violations. Her case has not yet gone to trial.

Read also our article: Investigative Report: ICE Has Its Own FBI, Only Dumber - and a Look at Germany

The department claims there could be 250,000 ineligible voters. Yet according to the figures presented, only 156 people have been charged with related election offenses since the Trump administration took office, out of roughly 227 million registered voters. The larger figure is disputed. And 156 charges are not 156 convictions. Still, the White House is sending a political state of emergency marching across people's front lawns. The Justice Department is demanding complete voter rolls from numerous states and suing those that refuse to hand them over. Voting machines and ballots have also become targets of federal investigations.

The timing deserves particular attention. For months, the administration has been searching for evidence to support its claim that America's election system is being undermined by votes cast by noncitizens. So far, the investigations have produced far fewer concrete accusations than the political announcements would suggest. In California, officials are pushing back against claims that their voter rolls are unreliable across the board. State Attorney General Rob Bonta rejects allegations of widespread voter fraud. Meanwhile, people are being forced to explain why their names appear on lists whose errors officials themselves are challenging in court. An incorrect entry can be fixed. The image of an arrest keeps circulating.

Eric Balliet, a former HSI investigator, said that in his 23 years of service, he had never encountered a comparable initiative in which agents visited private homes to check whether people were eligible to vote. Attorney Jessica Marsden considers the approach capable of intimidating lawful voters. Scholar Carol Anderson warns that naturalized citizens in particular could stay away from the polls out of fear of a visit. Former administration adviser Andrea R. Flores accuses Trump of increasingly turning the Department of Homeland Security into his own federal police force.

The midterm elections are coming in November. Anyone who wants to verify someone's immigration status could do so by carefully examining the relevant records. Instead, the public is being shown images of armed men at people's doors. Muñoz sees himself as a piece on a political chessboard. Politics is a beautiful game of chess if you know how to play it, he said in essence. Unfortunately, they used him as a prop. Whether his defense holds up in court remains to be seen. What is already certain is that a 72-year-old man has become a visible part of this hostile campaign before a verdict has even been reached.