by Henry Rodgers
Nineteen foreign nationals were indicted after it was discovered they had illegally voted in the 2016 presidential election, The Department of Justice announced Friday.
Of the 19, nine illegally claimed they were U.S. citizens in order to vote. The foreign nationals charged were citizens from El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Nigeria, Dominican Republic, Philippines, Grenada, Guyana, Japan, Germany, Poland, Italy, Korea and Haiti.
The news comes after a federal grand jury in Wilmington, North Carolina, returned indictments charging the 19 foreign nationals with false claims of U.S. citizenship in order to register to vote, as well as voting by an illegal immigrant, the DOJ said in a statement.
President Donald Trump and other Republican lawmakers have been pushing for stricter voter ID laws, since Trump took office in 2016. The effort has received pushback from Democratic leaders such as Minnesota Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, who suggested that Republicans want to suppress voters.
The 19 foreign nationals will now face a maximum penalty of six years in prison, as well as a $350,000 fine and a term of supervised release after getting released from prison.
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