After almost a week of protests in Los Angeles against recent federal sweeps of immigration application in the city, President Trump doubled the efforts of his administration to stop and deport immigrants without documentation, claiming that they are a key vote block in democratic cities.
In a real social position on Sunday, Trump said that Los Angeles and other similar cities are the core of the Democratic Power Center, where they use illegal foreigners to expand their voter base, deceive in the elections and make the welfare state grow, steal good paid jobs and benefits of US worker citizens. “
But according to the electoral officials of Los Angeles County, that is simply not true.
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“That statement is false and without support, and only serves to create concern and confusion without foundation about the electoral process,” said the Los Angeles County Registry Office in a statement.
Actually, the county has safeguards to ensure that eligible voters vote and that all votes are accurately, said Mike Sánchez, spokesman for the Registration Office-Registration of Registration of County.
How do people become registered voters in California?
In the State of California, there are five requirements that a person must meet to register to vote, according to the Secretary of State of California. To register an individual must be:
- An American citizen.
- California resident.
- At least 18 years or more or before the day of the election.
- He currently does not fulfill a state or federal prison sentence for the conviction of a serious crime.
- He is currently not mentally incompetent to vote for a court.
When a person meets the eligibility criteria, he can register to vote, which includes attesting to the penalty of perjury that meets all eligibility requirements, including being an American and resident citizen of California, Sánchez said.
“This affidavit is a legal statement and serves as the basis of the voter registration process,” said Sánchez.
Voting as a non -citizen is a serious crime that can lead to a year in jail or deportation, Hasen said.
Although there are some cities in the United States in which non -citizens can participate in local elections, for example in communities in Vermont and Maryland, participation is limited to vote in the elections of the School Board or the Municipal Council.
In California, San Francisco is the only city where non -citizens can vote and is limited to the School Board.
How do you verify the Los Angeles County who votes in federal elections?
Once a voter is recorded, his personal information is verified through the state voting registration database, which is carried out by cross verification of the Motorized Vehicle Record Department or the last four digits of the person's social security number, Sánchez said.
When the verification process is completed, a voter does not have to show its identification when voting in person. If a verification has not occurred, the voter must show the identification the first time they vote. Acceptable forms of identification include a driver's license, identification or passport issued by the State; The Secretary of State of California has a complete online list of what identifies documents to take to the vote.
Once the survey opens for voters inside the county, the voter must sign a list in the presence of electoral workers, who attest to their identity and eligibility.
“The electoral officials also carry out regular main maintenance of voters, verifying several data points, including the death records of the Department of Public Health of California, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Motorized Vehicles and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation,” said the Secretary of State of California to the Times in a statement.
For mail voting tickets, the firm in the return envelope is compared to the one in the file in the voter registration, said Sánchez. If the firm does not match or miss, the voter is contacted and is given the opportunity to correct it.
“Only verified ballots are accepted and counted,” he said.
Where do claims about the vote of undocumented immigrants originate?
The claim that immigrants who lack documentation vote in large quantities, and for Democrats, has been repeated for years.
It has seeds in the theory of racist conspiracy that was once brake called the “great replacement.” According to a survey of the Public Affairs Research Center of Associated Press and NORC, 1 in 3 Americans now believe that “an effort is being striving to replace Americans born in the United States with immigrants with electoral profits.”
The theory has gained impulse under Trump.
In 2016, Trump won the Electoral College and the Presidency, but not the popular vote. That was for the nominated Democrat Hillary Clinton, who received around 2.9 million votes.
Trump then said, without evidence, that he would have won the popular vote if 3 to 5 million immigrants living in the country would not have voted illegally.
“Around 3 million votes were the margin by which he lost the popular vote, so I think he chose that number of 3 million to try to explain his loss of popular vote,” said Hasen.
After losing his re -election offer in 2020 against Joe Biden, when voting by mail was a focus, Trump renamed immigrants who lacked authorization in the 2024 campaign and finally voted back to the White House.
“In 2024, when I believe that Trump and the Republicans concluded that attacks on the tickets in absence were hurting them because people do not want to appear in person to vote, the change returned to immigration,” said Hasen.
Electoral fraud affirms that the echo of whom tries to dictate the political narrative, according to Hasen.
Researchers have found, repeatedly through decades of research, that the fraud made by voters in the surveys is practically non -existent and does not happen “on a scale even close to that necessary to” manipulate “an election, according to the Brennan Justice Center. Many cases of informed fraud were due to human errors or errors.
“I think one of the things we have seen is that people at the end of the elections tend to be more likely to believe that there is a trap,” said Hasen. “But Donald Trump has really supercharged things to the point where we are far beyond what we normally see in terms of partisan divisions.”
But Trump is not just to feed that theory recently. Last year, while campaigning for Trump, billionaire Elon Musk repeated those statements on his social media platform, X.
“If the Democratic party wins enough voters to win an election by importing them and giving them free things, then they will,” he published in September.
So is the number of undocumented immigrants grow in Los Angeles?
Yes, but probably not at the rhythm, said Manuel Paster, professor of sociology and US studies at the USC.
The California immigrant population, including authorization, increased by 5% (approximately 500,000) from 2010 to 2023, compared to 14% (1.27 million) from 2000 to 2010, and by 37% (2.4 million) increasing in the 1990s, according to the California Public Policy Institute.
Between 2019 and 2022, the population of undocumented immigrants in most states throughout the country constantly rose. However, California decreased, according to the PEW Research Center.
These days, most new immigrants go to Florida, Texas and south instead of High Costa California, said the shepherd.
“Los Angeles, more than 70% of our undocumented immigrants have been in the country for more than a decade,” he said. “They are more likely to be employees, parents, parts of the institutions of faith.”
