A Bahamian national who arrived in the U.S. during President Gerald Ford’s administration and lived with a green card for nearly 50 years has been arrested and placed into deportation proceedings after investigators discovered he illegally cast a ballot in the 2020 election.
Anthony Tyrone Higgs’ case is the latest in a growing wave of arrests connected to illegal votes as the Trump administration ramps up enforcement on election integrity-related crimes.
The White House didn’t mince words.
“This alien was a guest in our country who forfeited his right to be in the U.S. when he committed these violent crimes and voted in the 2020 election. Any non-citizens who vote illegally in our elections will be arrested and removed. American elections are only for Americans.”
White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis made that statement exclusively to Fox News Digital on Friday.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division of DHS, arrested Higgs in Decatur, Georgia on September 3. He is currently in the custody of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), the subdivision that handles migrant removal operations.
Higgs was admitted into the U.S. in October 1976 as a Lawful Permanent Resident — commonly known as a green card holder. The Trump administration has since placed him in proceedings to revoke his immigration status due to his lengthy criminal record.
That record includes armed robbery, domestic violence, and assault on a police officer. Higgs also has convictions for resisting arrest, two counts of grand larceny, and two counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin highlighted the severity of Higgs’ criminal history and the illegal vote.
“This criminal alien from the Bahamas has a rap sheet for multiple violent crimes, including armed robbery, domestic violence, and assault on a police officer,” Mullin said. “On top of all of that, he illegally voted in the 2020 election.”
Mullin added that just one noncitizen casting a ballot is enough to cancel out an American citizen’s vote.
“Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of ICE, this criminal will be removed from our country and can never interfere in our elections again,” he continued.
The Higgs case is far from isolated. DHS provided several other recent cases of illegal immigrants or ineligible voters charged with election-related crimes.
In August, Colombian national Carlos Jaramillo-Grajales was sentenced to three years in prison following an ICE investigation. He pleaded guilty to committing identity theft to illegally vote in elections for more than 20 years, according to the agency.
“Federal immigration laws serve to safeguard our nation’s borders and protect the integrity of our government,” said Gregory Kehoe, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. “Those who seek to circumvent, exploit, or break these laws will be prosecuted fully.”
In New Jersey, a Slovakian national was found to have illegally voted in the 2022 midterms, according to HSI. The agency also cited the case of an Australian national accused of illegally casting ballots in both 2022 and 2024 in Louisiana.
Mauritanian national Mahady Sacko was arrested by an ICE and FBI partnership in Philadelphia and charged with voter fraud. Sacko allegedly voted illegally multiple times going back to 2008. He was already under an order of removal, DHS said, stating that he “exhausted all appeals” and an immigration board upheld his removal order as of 2002 — but he remained in the country.
The Trump DHS has made election integrity enforcement a top priority. The message from the White House is clear: noncitizens who vote will be arrested and removed.
Mullin summed it up: “Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of ICE, this criminal will be removed from our country and can never interfere in our elections again.”
