Sacramento-area residents accused of voting as noncitizens arraigned in federal court

Sharon Bernstein, The Sacramento Bee on Nov 9, 2026

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The federal government moved forward on Monday with criminal cases against two Sacramento area residents caught up in the Trump administration’s efforts to investigate and prosecute noncitizens it believes registered and voted illegally.

Juan Antonio Rivas Garcia, of Sacramento, and Giezell Viduya Adawag, of Vacaville, each pleaded not guilty Monday afternoon in federal court in Sacramento to a single misdemeanor charge of voting as an alien.

They are among about 40 California green-card holders charged with voting illegally as noncitizens, identified via a hotly contested database of possible noncitizens developed by the Department of Homeland Security that is also the focus of several fast-moving lawsuits.

The government’s list was at the center of the administration’s efforts to force California to set aside ballots in last week’s election from about 20,000 people it says may have voted illegally. That effort was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court last week, but it resurfaced days later as part of another lawsuit in which the government again asked the courts to force California to remove some names from its voter registration rolls.

Despite high-profile departures from the Justice Department in the days since Election Day last week, when Democrats pummeled President Donald Trump’s Republican Party at the polls, prosecutors say they will continue to pursue cases against individuals who cast ballots as noncitizens.

Such cases, misdemeanors that carry a maximum sentence of one year in prison, are filed from time to time in the federal system, but rarely with the level of publicity that accompanied the charges filed against Rivas Garcia and Adawag in what the federal government is calling “Operation Protect the Vote.”

Also caught up in the investigation were Sacramento residents Kamlesh Shah, 68, who appeared in court on Friday looking frail from a heart condition; and Meryll Quirong Costi, a nursing home employee shackled and taken into custody Nov. 2, an experience her attorney said was mortifying.

On Monday, Rivas Garcia, 46, sat in the second row of the public gallery waiting for arraignment in his case, wearing a black button-down shirt that was a far cry from his initial appearance in court, shackled and dressed in an orange jail uniform.

At the defense table after his case was called by Magistrate Judge Allison Claire, he wore black headphones in order to hear the charges and her instructions in Spanish.

Rivas Garcia’s attorney, Pat McCarthy, said the native of Mexico seemed somewhat baffled by the chain of events that began with his Oct. 19 arrest, when he was taken into custody and booked at the Sacramento County jail before being released on his own recognizance.

In an affidavit filed last month, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Phillip Hirsch said Rivas Garcia registered to vote four times between 2018 and 2022, updating such details as his address and preferred language.

He voted in 2022 and 2024, the affidavit said.

Adawag was not present at the arraignment, but her attorney entered a plea of not guilty on her behalf. Both Adawag and Rivas Garcia requested jury trials in their cases.

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