By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
October 21, 2026
In announcing that a Vigo County immigrant who holds DACA status has been charged with five counts of voter fraud, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita linked the arrest to the list of nearly 600,000 Indiana voters he and Secretary of State Diego Morales sent to the federal government in October 2024 for citizenship verification.
“Two years ago, I started a process to verify the citizenship status of registered voters in Indiana and was successful in obtaining the data from the federal government,” Rokita said in a press release. “Now, we are acting on that information and it’s certainly not the end of our enforcement.”
Terre Haute resident Francisco Aguilar Romero, identified as a noncitizen who has obtained Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status, is accused of registering to vote in 2018 and 2023 and cast a ballot in the 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024 general elections and in the 2019 and 2023 municipal elections in Vigo County. He has been charged with one count of submitting a voter registration application, one count of perjury for stating under oath he was a U.S. citizen, and three counts of being an ineligible voter by knowingly voting in an election when he was not authorized to do so. All are Level 6 felonies.
If convicted, Romero, 41, would face a maximum prison sentence of 11 and a half years.
Romero was booked into the Vigo County Jail in Terre Haute on Wednesday at 9:29 a.m. and released at 11:50 a.m., according to the jail’s website. Court records show his bond was set at $9,950 cash only.
Filed in Vigo County Superior Court, the case is State of Indiana v. Francisco Aguilar Romero, 84D01-2610-F6-005110.
Rokita’s announcement of the charges against Romero comes almost two years to the day of when he and Morales publicly stated they had sent a list of 585,774 registered Hoosier voters to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The state officials were asking the federal government for citizenship verification, saying those voters had not provided a driver’s license number or Social Security number or were residing overseas.
At that time, a coalition of voting-rights advocates said the assertion by Rokita and Morales that the USCIS needed to provide the verification because the election was fast approaching suggested “at worst, an intent to intimidate eligible voters and to decrease public confidence in the integrity of Indiana’s elections.”
After Rokita and Morales refused to release the list, The Indiana Citizen, represented by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, filed a lawsuit in Marion County Superior Court to get the document. In September, the trial court granted the state’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed the case. The Citizen has since filed a notice of appeal with the Court of Appeals of Indiana.
The press release from Rokita’s office noted Romero had registered before Indiana’s controversial proof-of-citizenship law was passed. Although the law, House Enrolled Act 1264, has been challenged in court, Rokita applauded the new statute and advocated for Congress to pass President Donald Trump’s signature bill, the SAVE Act, which would require everyone registering to vote in a federal election to show documentation of U.S. citizenship.
“This case shows exactly why we need the SAVE America Act and why Congress should act immediately to pass this common-sense legislation,” Rokita said in the press release. “If a simple checkbox is enough for an illegal alien to register and vote in election after election, then others could easily do so as well and many have across the country.”
According to the probable cause affidavit, Rokita and Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt are prosecuting Romero for alleged voting violations that the FBI investigated and the U.S. Attorney’s Office ultimately decided not to pursue. The affidavit does not identify the specific office involved.
The affidavit was filed Tuesday by Kurt Spivey, director of investigations for the Indiana Attorney General’s Office. Spivey said he found Romero working in a Terre Haute grocery store on July 31 and subsequently took Romero outside to his car, where he conducted an interview.
Romero reportedly told Spivey he had advised the employees at the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles that he was not a U.S. citizen, but after providing his DACA documents, Social Security number and driver’s license, “several supervisors” said he could vote. Moreover, Romero said he just signed the voter registration form as he was told to do and did not fill out the form himself and did not check the box affirming he was a U.S. citizen.
In the affidavit, Spivey noted he spoke with employees at the Terre Haute branch of the BMV, but none remembered Romero. The voter registration process at the BMV is done on computer and the individual registering cannot see the forms. However, during the process, the individuals are required to answer verbally questions about their citizenship status and their age, according to Spivey.
BMV employees reportedly told Spivey that it was not feasible for Romero to complete the voter registration process without seeing any documents and without understanding what he was signing.
In a statement to The Citizen, Morales said every illegal vote undermines the integrity of elections and the confidence Hoosiers have in the election process.
“My office has worked diligently with state and federal partners to identify potential cases of noncitizen voting and strengthen safeguards to prevent it from happening,” Morales said. “This case underscores why that work matters. Our elections must be fair, secure, and accountable.”
In the press release about Romero, the attorney general’s office said the work Rokita did with USCIS to access federal databases produced data showing at least 21 noncitizens have voted in Indiana elections and nearly 150 more noncitizens are on the state’s voter roll but have not cast a ballot.
Romero’s arrest is the “first time Indiana has prosecuted an illegal alien for the crime of illegal voting,” according to Rokita’s press release.
The issue of noncitizens potentially voting sparked some tense exchanges during the Oct. 7 debate among the four candidates for secretary of state.
Max Engling, Republican candidate, said he was the only candidate to say Indiana needs to ensure only U.S. citizens are voting in its elections. “They all said it was unduly burdensome to verify if you’re a U.S. citizen to be voting in our elections,” Engling said, referring to his three opponents. “That is a very big problem and they all said it directly.”
Beau Bayh, Democratic candidate, said Engling’s characterization that he, Libertarian Lauri Shillings and Lincoln Party candidate Greg Ballard supported illegal voting was “not even close to the truth.” Then pointing to the number of cases of alleged illegal voting, he questioned why no one was being prosecuted.
“We have uncovered 22 instances of illegal voting,” Bayh shot back at Engling. “You need to call your buddy, the attorney general, and get him on the case. You haven’t done that.”
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.
