Federal authorities have charged seven noncitizens in North Texas in a broad election-integrity crackdown, part of the Trump administration’s expanding effort to investigate and prosecute alleged election crimes ahead of the midterm elections.

Fox News was granted exclusive access to accompany Homeland Security Investigations agents during arrests across the Dallas-Fort Worth region, offering an inside view of how federal investigators track down suspected instances of noncitizen voting.

Ryan Raybould, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said six of the defendants were indicted on Sept. 10. A seventh person was charged through a criminal complaint one day later.

Six defendants were taken into custody by federal agents in the days that followed. The remaining defendant, previously regarded as a fugitive, later turned himself in to federal authorities.

“One of the individuals, an illegal alien from Mexico, actually was a 2023 convicted felon for lying on a passport application,” Raybould said. “So this person has already interacted with our office, the Department of Justice, and chose to then again commit a serious federal violation.”

Speaking exclusively with Fox News, Raybould said the seven North Texas cases represent the start—not the end—of his office’s election-related enforcement work.

The cases follow other recent action by the DOJ, which earlier this month charged five people in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Wisconsin over allegations involving unlawful voting or fraudulent voter registration in the 2022 and 2024 elections.

“It’s important to clean up our elections and make sure that they’re free and fair,” Raybould told Fox News.

“And my job as U.S. attorney is to prosecute cases and controversies. And so if fraud happens, whether it’s our elections, our health care fraud system, stealing from the American taxpayer, I’m going to go after it.”

Raybould said prosecutors are focused on whether federal law was broken, not which candidate received an allegedly illegal vote.

“We don’t even know who they voted for, frankly, like we don’t care,” Raybould said. “You can vote for whoever. That is not what we are focused on, it’s the act. You’re not allowed to vote if you’re an illegal alien.” 

The federal effort to identify potential noncitizen voters has drawn scrutiny from Democrats over how investigators are accessing and analyzing voter information.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, (D-N.Y.), and Sen. Alex Padilla, (D-Calif.), on Monday made public a complaint from an anonymous DHS whistleblower alleging that personnel working on the department’s “Unlawful Voter Initiative” were directed to access state voter records in ways that may violate state laws.

DHS has pushed back on those allegations.

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“The Department accessed publicly available data from states’ voter rolls and cross-referenced them with known aliens in our systems. It’s not rocket science; it’s an easy step to secure our elections,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News.

Asked about the allegations, U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould defended investigators’ use of federal databases and publicly available information.

“HSI has access to databases, and they have a right to access that database,” Raybould told Fox News.

“They also can cross-reference that database with publicly available information.”

Raybould compared the investigative approach to health care fraud cases, in which federal authorities analyze government data to identify potential outliers for further investigation.

“We look at Medicaid data to identify outliers all the time, to pick targets,” Raybould said. “Everybody should be in favor of making sure that illegals do not vote in our elections.

Raybould said prosecuting election fraud should have bipartisan support.

“If someone is illegal, and they vote in an election, that draws down the value of the vote of American citizens, and so it also undermines our democracy, and the vote is absolutely critical,” Raybould said. “It’s how we elect our leaders. It’s an important voice for American citizens when they get to cast the ballot.” 

The seven non-citizens are charged with the following offenses:

• Helen Sayen Adams, is a 67-year-old citizen of Nigeria and lawful permanent resident (Green Card holder) since May 2024, is charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and false statement of citizenship in order to register to vote. Adams allegedly falsely claimed U.S. citizenship on a Texas voter-registration application in June 2024 and voted in the November 2024 general election in Tarrant County. She later admitted she was not a U.S. citizen.
• Joshua Nmelichukwu Akpom, is a 27-year-old citizen of Nigeria and lawful permanent resident since 2016, charged with false statements in relation to naturalization. As alleged, Akpom falsely denied on his 2026 naturalization application that he had ever claimed U.S. citizenship, registered to vote, or voted, despite registering in 2017 and voting in the 2018 general election. Due to the five-year statute of limitations, prosecutors relied on the naturalization offense rather than the voting conduct.
• Carlos Salas Barrios, is a 41-year-old Mexican citizen and lawful permanent resident since 2018, charged by complaint with allegedly voting by an alien in a Federal Election. Barrios unlawfully cast a provisional ballot in Tarrant County in the November 2024 general election despite not being a U.S. citizen and not being registered. Although the ballot was ultimately rejected, casting it was still unlawful under Texas and federal law.
• Khalwinder Singh Bhengura, is a 69-year-old citizen of India and lawful permanent resident since 2022, charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and false statement of citizenship in order to register to vote. Bhengura falsely claimed U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in January 2024 and again when applying for a Texas driver’s license later that year in August. He voted in the November 2024 general election and later admitted he knew he was not a citizen. He was arrested on Sept. 11.
• Celestin Katubadi, is a 20-year-old citizen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and lawful permanent resident, charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and false statement of citizenship in order to vote. Katubadi cast a provisional ballot in Tarrant County during the November 2024 general election after falsely claiming U.S. citizenship on an affidavit of provisional-voter. Although his ballot was rejected, casting it was still unlawful by Texas and federal law.
• Rocio Thrasher, is a 38-year-old Mexican citizen and lawful permanent resident since 2017, charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and false statement of citizenship in order to register to vote. According to the indictment, Thrasher allegedly falsely declared U.S. citizenship when registering in June 2024 and voted in the November 2024 general election. She later admitted knowing she was not a citizen.
• Moises Anwar Arellano Alba, is a 36-year-old illegal alien from Mexico ordered deported in July, charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and false statement of citizenship in order to register to vote. He allegedly falsely claimed U.S. citizenship when applying for a Texas driver’s license in 2023 and voted early in the 2024 general election in Dallas County despite being a noncitizen and convicted felon. He admitted in immigration proceedings that he had voted. Arellano Alba was a fugitive until this morning when he surrendered himself to federal agents.

Kelly Stafford, who has spent years raising four daughters amid the overlapping worlds of professional sports, fame and social media, used the latest Sydney Sweeney controversy as a parenting lesson. The wife of Los Angeles Rams quarterback and reigning NFL MVP Matthew Stafford shared her perspective this week as debate continued over Sweeney’s revealing campaign for sports prediction and trading app Novig, which shows the “Euphoria” actress nude with sports equipment strategically covering her body.

On Monday, Stafford, 37, made her position clear by reposting a video from influencer Daniel Hong to her Instagram Story. Alongside the clip, she wrote an emphatic endorsement: “THIS THIS THIS THIS.”

Hong, who is raising two daughters, used an image from Sweeney’s ad campaign to discuss what he sees as an important message for young girls: being noticed is not the same as having worth.

“Appearance can get you attention: likes, comments, followers, money, opportunities,” Hong said. “All of that is very real. What I want them to understand is that attention and value are not the same thing.”

The sentiment clearly struck a chord with Stafford, who shares four daughters with the Rams star. She has often spoken openly about motherhood and family life on social media and on her “The Morning After” podcast, which is currently on hiatus.

Novig’s Sydney Sweeney campaign has also fueled a wider conversation about the sexualization of women in sports, drawing criticism from several well-known female athletes.

Australian Olympic swimming gold medalist Ariarne Titmus described the imagery as “a kick in the face to every woman who has dedicated her life to perfecting her craft,” while questioning why women’s bodies are still so often used as a way to market sports-related content.

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Paralympian Beatriz Hatz delivered an even more pointed response, saying women “deserve to compete at the peak of our ability and be seen as athletes.”

Former UCLA gymnast Gracie Kramer also entered the discussion, posting video of herself competing and writing, “Idk what Sydney Sweeney was doing, but this is what a woman in sports looks like.”

Sweeney did not directly respond to the backlash. However, she appeared to address the larger debate by posting photos of athletes who had previously posed nude for ESPN The Magazine’s well-known Body Issue.

The debate is ultimately larger than one advertisement. For Stafford, it appears to have hit especially close to home.

With four daughters growing up in a world where attention can be converted into currency with a swipe of a screen, Hong’s message was the one she chose to amplify: popularity can have a price tag, but it shouldn’t determine a girl’s value.

One of five women reported missing in connection with a notorious pornographer was allegedly strangled on camera for a disturbing homemade video, according to her family.

Nicole Fusaro disappeared in 2018 when she was 27. Her relatives say she was allegedly captured in footage filmed by Ray Horsch, the now-deceased adult filmmaker, after she went missing.

Fusaro’s cousin told NBC10 that investigators said they believe the woman shown in the video is Fusaro. Authorities have not, however, formally identified the victim.

Fusaro is among at least five missing women linked by police to Horsch’s Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, home. Investigators believe at least three of those women are dead.

Authorities said last month that material recovered from a hard drive inside Horsch’s home led them to believe two other missing women — Maribel Fresses and Gabrielle Amarando — also died, along with Fusaro.

Fresses was 27 when she vanished in 2018, while Amarando was 22 when she disappeared in 2012. The bodies of neither woman have been located.

Horsch died last year at the age of 82. He was known for publishing graphic snuff films and writing erotic, sadomasochistic books.

His former wife, Amy McHale, also disappeared in June 2016. But police did not uncover the disturbing evidence allegedly tying the missing women to Horsch’s home until after his death.

Pennsylvania authorities said the investigation into Horsch began in June 2026, when his son Eugene, 44, was pulled over in his car near Independence Mall in Philadelphia. 

Police became suspicious when a woman in the car with Eugene gave identification of Blair Tonzelli, who disappeared in 2023. 

Inside the vehicle, cops also found two handguns and over $8,000 of illegal drugs, and Eugene was brought in for questioning. 

He allegedly suggested to investigators that Tonzelli would ‘never be seen again’, leading authorities to carry out several search warrants on the Olney home previously owned by his notorious pornographer father. 

Eugene has not been charged in connection with any of the women’s disappearances.

In an initial search of the home on June 20, police said they found at least one additional illegal gun, a fake FBI badge, a marijuana growing operation, and five urns containing cremated remains. 

In another search on June 25, investigators said they found over 50 hard drives holding over 600,000 images, 70,000 videos and 10,000 writings and drawings.

In one of the hard drives, police said they found images and videos appearing to show Fresses and Amarando alive inside the house, followed by ‘graphic and dark’ depictions of their dead bodies, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.  

Police said they notified the families of Fresses and Amarando in August, and Fresses’ father Ricardo told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he knew in his gut that his daughter had been dead for years.

‘She called me every day. Absolutely every day she called me, and one day she stopped calling me,’ he said. ‘And as the years went by I knew she was gone.’

The women’s families said both girls had struggled with drug addictions, and Horsch reportedly often offered drugs, cash and shelter to women struggling with addictions in exchange for nude photo and video shoots, reports the Inquirer.

Horch had a reputation for creating violent pornography, and he also wrote books featuring serial killers who preyed on women.  

Computer parts and a home laboratory with various ‘containers of an unknown oily substance’ were also discovered in the home, reports NBC10. 

Investigators reportedly interviewed people who knew Ray Horsch who said that he had often bragged about killing people and melting their bodies with chemicals. 

The FBI’s Evidence Recovery Team was then drafted in to process the homemade laboratory, and another search warrant was served on the home on July 22 to excavate the property.

Investigators sent the oily substance to a Chicago laboratory, however it is not determined yet whether the substances contain human remains, reports say.

In August, Philadelphia Police Inspector Raymond Evers said teams were scouring the huge trove of digital evidence from Horsch’s home. 

Evers said the cache represented just five percent of the evidence seized from the property.

However, Evers said the investigation has been complicated because police have not recovered any human remains from the home, and forensics tests have failed to find any blood or DNA.

Evers said without bodies, the Philadelphia Office of the Medical Examiner cannot officially declare the women dead.

Eugene Horsch has not been charged with any crimes in connection with the missing women, and Evers declined to say whether he or his father are believed to be the perpetrators. 

He told a press conference: ‘Eugene lived there. He lived there for a long time. His dad lived there for a long time.’ 

Eugene Horsch remains in federal custody on charges related to illegal gun possession. 

Anyone with information is asked to call Philadelphia police at 215-686-TIPS (8477).

The Justice Department has brought charges against dozens of people accused of exploiting COVID-19 pandemic relief programs in schemes that allegedly caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday.

During remarks to reporters in the White House Rose Garden, Blanche said federal prosecutors nationwide helped arrest 160 defendants between mid-June and September. About 80 of those people were newly charged in connection with suspected COVID-19 fraud cases in Missouri and surrounding states, he said.

The alleged schemes accounted for more than $245 million in losses, according to Blanche.

Separately, federal prosecutors in Southern California said Tuesday that 12 defendants who operated in-home childcare facilities were charged with allegedly collecting more than $10 million in government childcare payments through fraud. Investigators said the facilities had few children enrolled, if any at all.

The 12 defendants are naturalized U.S. citizens originally from Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq and Somalia.

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“If you knowingly break the law, you will be held accountable,” Blanche said.

Officials said some defendants allegedly submitted claims for childcare payments while they were not even in the United States.

One defendant, Turkiya Alawad, 63, was found to be outside the U.S. between Jan. 1, 2024, and Jan. 30, 2024. However, they submitted and collected childcare payments for the dates she was not away, prosecutors said, according to The Associated Press.

The alleged daycare fraud case in California is larger than the one involving Feeding Our Future, which submitted roughly $4.6 million in claims to the Child Care Assistance Program in Minnesota, according to The AP.

The Trump administration has prioritized investigating and prosecuting fraud and abuse of government programs.

Vice President JD Vance chairs the administration’s fraud task force, which has led to dozens of arrests by prosecutors nationwide.