On Monday, federal authorities announced the arrest in California of at least 11 people, and charges against 28, alleging they registered to vote as noncitizens. Months of fears around the presence of federal agents at the polls and the use of armed immigration enforcement to affect national elections appear to be coming to fruition, despite the Trump administration’s inability to field meaningful evidence for claims of voter fraud or substantial voting by noncitizens.

The initiative, dubbed “Operation Protect the Vote,” comes in the lead-up to the midterm elections, where the Trump administration is making good on threats to weaponize the Justice Department and other federal entities in its favor over claims of supposed voter fraud. On Tuesday, the federal government sent election officials in Los Angeles County an unverified list of 20,000 people it claims are “likely noncitizens” registered to vote in California. As the New York Post first reported on Monday, federal agents used the list to make the more than two dozen targeted arrests on the basis of its voter........

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