Federal prosecutors have charged two Cleveland, Tennessee residents with illegally voting in the November 5, 2024 presidential election, accusing them of casting ballots despite being noncitizens. Mark Adwar Odisho, a 30-year-old originally from Iraq, and Frederic Jean Rene Sicard, a 50-year-old originally from France, both made initial appearances in federal court this week.
According to Local 3 News, the two men came under scrutiny following a federal investigation, with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee releasing information about the case this week. Odisho appeared in federal court on Thursday, while Sicard appeared on Friday. As reported by NewsChannel 9, the criminal complaints accuse both men of illegally voting in the 2024 presidential election, and the charges stem from an investigation by the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations.
U.S. Attorney Calls Voting a Citizenship Privilege
U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III, who oversees federal prosecutions in the Eastern District of Tennessee, said the right to vote is a fundamental privilege of American citizenship. Per NewsChannel 9's report, Hamilton said the complaints reflect the seriousness with which the United States protects the benefits of citizenship, adding that the theft of that privilege by a noncitizen will be prosecuted. Authorities have not released further details about how the alleged votes were cast or what specific statutory counts the men face.
Federal law generally bars noncitizens from voting in elections involving candidates for federal office. Under 18 U.S.C. § 611, the U.S. Code carves out a narrow exception allowing an alien to vote only when state or local law separately authorizes voting for another purpose and that voting is conducted independently of any federal race.
Part of a Wider Federal Crackdown
The Cleveland cases arrive amid a broader Justice Department push targeting alleged noncitizen voting nationwide. The department said it had charged 113 noncitizens across 20 states with voting and registration crimes over a recent seven-week span, according to NPR. Earlier this month, the department announced charges against 28 non-U.S. citizens in California for alleged election crimes, all of whom were green card holders, DOJ officials said.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said the Justice Department would not look the other way while noncitizens vote in federal elections, NPR reported. CNN has reported that the department had charged 23 California cases alleging noncitizen voting during President Trump's second term, with similar or smaller numbers of cases charged in other states, and that most defendants in these prosecutions were legal permanent residents, some having lived in the United States for decades.
Scale of the Alleged Problem Remains Disputed
Despite the expanding enforcement effort, noncitizen voting has never been found to be a widespread problem in American elections, per NPR's reporting. ProPublica has reported that the phenomenon is exceedingly rare according to countless studies and state audits. Between January 2025 and May 2026, fewer than 150 alleged noncitizen voters were referred for prosecution nationwide, and just 41 were ultimately charged with illegal voting or other election-related crimes, according to ProPublica.
The Trump administration has relied on Homeland Security Investigations to search voter rolls for potential noncitizen voters, a process ProPublica reported has generated tens of thousands of leads nationwide. The Department of Homeland Security has said it identified 300,000 potential noncitizens after reviewing more than 100 million voter records, but as of mid-September had opened only 1,620 investigations and made around 160 arrests, according to CNN. DHS has also released documents asserting it found more than 250,000 noncitizens on voter rolls in just four states, though ProPublica noted the documents did not explain how that figure was calculated.
In at least one instance, the discrepancy traced back to bureaucratic error rather than fraud: New Jersey disclosed that a mistake involving its Motor Vehicle Commission caused 6,600 noncitizens to be registered, with fewer than 400 of them actually voting, per ProPublica's reporting. It remains unclear whether the Cleveland cases are connected to the broader national totals or the California prosecutions, and no additional details about pleas, bond conditions, or future court dates have been made public.
