NEWARK, N.J. – Citizenship first. Voting second.
That’s how it’s supposed to work, Save Jerseyans.
Federal prosecutors allege a West New York woman reversed that order — and then lied about her voting history to obtain American citizenship.
U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer announced that Lizabeth Almonte Rosa, 24, has been charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and unlawfully procuring citizenship. She made her initial appearance in Newark federal court on October 7th.
According to prosecutors, Almonte Rosa entered the United States from the Dominican Republic on an IR2 visa and was not an American citizen when she registered to vote. Her registration form nevertheless falsely certified that she was a citizen.
The government alleges she subsequently voted in person in both the June 2022 primary and the November 2022 general election, despite remaining ineligible to vote in federal elections.
Then came the citizenship application.
Prosecutors say Almonte Rosa falsely claimed on her naturalization application that she had never registered to vote or voted in a federal election. That application requires applicants to swear under penalty of perjury that their answers are complete and accurate.
She is now a naturalized citizen. The charges concern her alleged conduct before obtaining citizenship and the way she obtained it.
The broader point? A citizenship certification is only as effective as the safeguards backing it up. If prosecutors prove these allegations, an ineligible voter successfully cast ballots in two elections before allegedly concealing that history during naturalization, circumstances which were all the more troubling in light of the ongoing controversy concerning the integrity of the state’s voter rolls.
New Jersey voters deserve to know how that happened.
The illegal-voting charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. Unlawfully procuring citizenship carries a maximum of ten years and a $250,000 fine. The FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services investigated the case, which was brought through the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Election Integrity Task Force.
