GAINESVILLE, GA. — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Georgia, Northern), published as received.
GAINESVILLE, Ga. - Benito Covarrubias Iniguez, an illegal alien from Mexico residing in Winder, Georgia, appeared today before United States Magistrate Judge Anna W. Howard on federal charges of making a false claim of citizenship in order to vote after allegedly obtaining a fraudulent passport.
“Votes of non-citizens impersonating Americans undermine the integrity of our cherished democratic process and diminish public confidence in our election results,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. “This case and the many others brought in this district and around the country reinforce that non-citizens who vote in federal elections will be found, arrested, and prosecuted.”
“Protecting the integrity of U.S. elections requires enforcing the laws that govern who may lawfully participate,” said Ryan McSeveney, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service Miami Field Office, which oversees the Southeastern United States. “DSS will continue working closely with our law enforcement partners to investigate passport fraud and false claims of U.S. citizenship wherever they occur.”
According to U.S. Attorney Hertzberg, the charges, and other information presented in court: In 2000, after entering the United States from Mexico, Iniquez fraudulently obtained a passport in the name of a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico. Using that fraudulent identity, he later obtained a Georgia driver’s license, registered to vote, and then voted in the November 5, 2024 general election.
On October 16, 2026, Benito Covarrubias Iniguez, 64, of Jalisco, Mexico, was charged in a criminal complaint with making a false claim of U.S. citizenship in order to vote in a federal election. Federal agents arrested him earlier today.
Iniguez is the fourth alien charged since September 2026 with voting in federal elections in the Northern District of Georgia. Others included:
Pauline Lewis, 65, an alien residing in Dawsonville, Georgia, is alleged to have voted by absentee ballot in the November 5, 2024, January 5, 2021, and November 3, 2020 federal elections. Lewis is allegedly a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda who entered the United States on a student visa in 1979 and remained in the country but never applied to become a U.S. citizen. On September 18, 2026, she appeared in federal court following her arrest on a criminal complaint charging her with voting as a non-citizen in a federal election.
Gabriel Covarrubias, 44, an alien residing in Lawrenceville, Georgia, is alleged to have voted in person using a false name in the November 5, 2024 federal election. Covarrubias is allegedly a citizen of Mexico who falsely claimed in a U.S. passport application submitted in March 2023 that he had a different name and was born in Puerto Rico. On September 1, 2026, he waived indictment and was charged by criminal information with making a false statement in a U.S. passport application and voting as a non-citizen in a federal election.
Analiea Milliscent Eccles, 43, an alien residing in Morrow, Georgia, is alleged to have voted nine times between 2008 and 2024. Eccles is allegedly a citizen of Venezuela who entered the United States on a temporary visitor visa in 1991 and remained in the country, applying for and receiving Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status in 2013. Although she allegedly sought to renew that status earlier this year, she has never applied to become a U.S. citizen. On September 14, 2026, she appeared in federal court following her arrest on a criminal complaint charging her with voting as a non-citizen in a federal election and making a false claim of U.S. citizenship to vote in an election.
Members of the public are reminded that the complaint only contains charges. The defendant is presumed innocent of the charges, and it will be the government’s burden to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.
This case is being investigated by the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service.
Assistant United States Attorney Brian Pearce is prosecuting the case.
These prosecutions are part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. The Atlanta Wilhelm HSTF comprises agents and officers from ATF, CGIS, DEA, FBI, ICE-HSI, IRS-CI, DOL-OIG, DSS, USMS, USPIS, and USSS, as well as numerous state and local agencies, with the prosecution being led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6185. The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.
