Two illegal immigrants in Florida plead guilty to voting in U.S. elections

Two illegal immigrants living in Florida pleaded guilty in separate cases to lying about their citizenship to vote in U.S. elections.

Jacqueline Wallace, a Jamaican citizen, admitted in federal court in Panama City to casting a ballot in the 2024 election.

And Rochelle Deborah Johnson, a citizen of the Bahamas, voted in the 2020 election.

Johnson also pleaded guilty in federal court in Tampa to passport fraud and lying about her citizenship on a Florida driver’s license application.

“Protecting the integrity of our elections not negotiable. Registering to vote and casting a ballot in our elections are actions that we must ensure are taken only by eligible U.S. citizens,” said John P. Heekin, the U.S. attorney whose office prosecuted Wallace, in a statement.

Wallace, 53, admitted in court that she came to the U.S. in 2010 on a six-month tourist visa and was supposed to leave by June 3, 2011. She has been out of that status ever since, but still claimed full U.S. citizenship when she registered to vote in January 2024.

She registered online and cast a ballot in the state’s primary election that August by mail.

Johnson, meanwhile, registered in person and voted in person in 2020.

The 65-year-old admitted in court that she entered the U.S. in 1988 on a tourism visa with her husband, Greg, and son, Keiron, and they remained in the country after the visa expired.

She later had a second marriage ceremony with her husband and obtained a retroactive birth certificate for her son, falsely claiming he was born in Florida and thus had automatic American citizenship.

She also took to portraying herself as a U.S. citizen. That included getting an American passport in 2007, flying to and from the Bahamas on the falsely attained passport in 2016, trying to get her passport renewed in 2018, illegally voting in the 2020 presidential election, and applying for a driver’s license in Florida in 2021 and a replacement license in 2024.

Johnson, 65, entered her guilty plea before a magistrate judge in federal court on Friday.

Prosecutors said Johnson’s mother came to the U.S. and sought legal permanent residency but the daughter, despite multiple visits, never sought any firm legal status beyond temporary visitor’s visas.

The two cases, both of which were charged last year, are part of a string of noncitizen voting cases brought by the Trump administration over the last 15 months.

The incidents are relatively rare — The Washington Times’ database of cases lists six prosecutions announced this year for illegal voting — but they challenge the claims of voting rights groups who say they are nonexistent.

Included in this year’s cases are two illegal immigrants and four people who were in the U.S. as legal permanent residents but who had not obtained American citizenship.

Under federal law, only citizens can vote in national elections.

Some localities, including the District of Columbia, allow noncitizens to vote in local affairs.