The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!
The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!

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Noncitizen taunts federal agent about midterms — then feds discover he’s registered to vote

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BS BULLETIN:

  • Federal prosecutors have charged Honduran national Darwin Jonathan Rivera Flores with fraudulently registering to vote in California and falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen.
  • Investigators started digging after Rivera repeatedly taunted a federal agent, texting in part, “I can’t wait until the mid terms” and threatening that agents could eventually be indicted “one bye one.”
  • Prosecutors say Rivera’s voter-registration application claimed he was a U.S. citizen and listed his birthplace as the United States — but authorities say he was born in Honduras and has never become a citizen. Importantly, officials say Rivera has not actually voted.

There are bad ideas.

And then there’s allegedly committing voter-registration fraud while sending taunting text messages to a federal agent about the midterms.

Meet Darwin Jonathan Rivera Flores.

The 30-year-old Honduran national and lawful permanent resident living in California’s San Fernando Valley was arrested Friday on a federal criminal complaint charging him with falsely claiming U.S. citizenship and fraudulently registering to vote.

And prosecutors say the investigation that led them there began with Rivera himself attracting federal attention.

Rivera had already encountered immigration authorities in February after disrupting an immigration enforcement operation at the federal building in Camarillo, according to court records. He received a misdemeanor citation, pleaded guilty and was placed on probation.

Apparently that experience didn’t inspire him to lose the federal agent’s number.

Beginning in April, prosecutors say Rivera sent a series of text messages to an agent.

One was particularly memorable. “Your not the good guy,” Rivera allegedly wrote. “I can’t wait until the mid terms you dont have qualified immunity then we can start and indict all you guys one bye one.”

Yes, the spelling belongs to him.

Rivera allegedly kept texting the agent through July.

Federal investigators eventually started looking into Rivera. And that’s when things got interesting. According to the Justice Department, investigators discovered an online California voter-registration record under the name “Darwin Rivera” connected to his Winnetka address.

They then obtained the certified registration application, receipt and signature image from the California Secretary of State. The application contained a rather consequential little check mark. Next to “I am a U.S. citizen”:

Yes. The registration records also allegedly listed Rivera’s birthplace as the “United States of America.” There’s a problem with that.

Federal authorities say Rivera was born in Honduras, entered the United States in 2002 and is here legally as a permanent resident. But permanent resident is not the same thing as citizen. Investigators say they found no record that Rivera ever sought or obtained U.S. citizenship.

California’s own Secretary of State makes the rule rather straightforward: You must be a United States citizen to register to vote, and applicants must affirm their citizenship on the registration form.

The Justice Department says Rivera has not voted in an election. He’s accused of illegally registering, not illegally casting a ballot.

The allegations nevertheless landed smack in the middle of an increasingly heated national fight over noncitizens and voter rolls ahead of November’s midterms.

And Trump administration officials aren’t treating Rivera’s case as an isolated curiosity. “Noncitizens who commit fraud so they can vote in American elections do so in violation of federal law and should expect to be prosecuted,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in announcing the charges. “Let this criminal complaint serve as a reminder that the Justice Department stands ready to enforce the laws Congress enacted to ensure only American citizens vote in federal elections.”

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli went even further. “Today’s arrest is the first of many to come,” Essayli said. He argued that California’s registration system makes it too easy for noncitizens to get onto voter rolls and renewed the federal government’s demand that the state cooperate with an audit.

California officials dispute the Trump administration’s broader claims about large numbers of noncitizens being registered and have questioned the reliability of federal data being used to support them. Election experts likewise caution that noncitizen voting is illegal but rare, and that database comparisons can produce false positives.

Rivera’s case, however, isn’t a database match being tossed around in a political argument. It’s now a federal criminal case. Prosecutors have charged him with two felonies — making a false claim to U.S. citizenship and fraudulent voter registration. Each carries a statutory maximum of five years in federal prison if he’s convicted.

And, because these are charges rather than convictions, Rivera is presumed innocent unless prosecutors prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Still, there is an obvious lesson here. If you’ve allegedly checked the “U.S. citizen” box on a California voter-registration form when you’re not one, repeatedly taunting a federal agent about the upcoming midterms may not be the most sophisticated strategy for staying under the radar.

MY QUICK TAKE

The fact that a noncitizen managed to register by checking a box claiming U.S. citizenship and listing America as his birthplace is precisely the kind of case that makes people ask whether simply asking someone “Are you a citizen?” is much of an election-security safeguard.

And then there’s Rivera’s alleged decision to text a federal agent about the midterms. If prosecutors prove this case, somebody may eventually write a handbook called “How Not to Get Away With It.”

Chapter One practically writes itself: Don’t taunt the feds.

DBS WIRE SOURCES

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