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The Justice Department has charged 28 noncitizens in California with illegally registering to vote or casting ballots.

Getting into it: The DOJ announced the charges Monday, with 11 people arrested so far and the rest expected to be taken into custody soon. All 28 are green card holders, meaning they’re in the country legally but can’t vote, and prosecutors say 22 of them voted, some in this year’s primary, while five only registered.

Most face felony counts for lying on naturalization forms or registering fraudulently, each punishable by up to five years. One defendant, a 72-year-old man from Belize, is accused of voting in the 2020, 2022 and 2024 elections. All 28 were on a list of more than 20,000 “likely noncitizen” voters the DOJ handed California officials on a flash drive last week with a 48-hour deadline to review them, which state and Los Angeles County officials refused, saying it would violate federal and state law.

The DOJ then sued and filed an emergency motion Monday asking a judge to order the state to set aside those ballots. The DOJ has also warned that election officials who knowingly count noncitizen ballots could be prosecuted, with Trump posting, “They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!”

“This Department of Justice will not look the other way while noncitizens vote in federal elections,” Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said. “California refused to look at that list. Today’s charges show exactly what that refusal puts at risk.”

California AG Rob Bonta said anyone who broke the law should be held accountable, but that “28 out of 23 million registered voters in California is just a drop in the bucket,” or about 0.0001%. Gov. Gavin Newsom called the effort “a sad, desperate attempt by Trump” to suppress California voters, saying the push to toss ballots “should scare the hell out of every American.”