Federal voting arrest in New Jersey adds new pressure point in Sherrill-Trump standoff

Federal authorities have arrested a Senegalese immigrant in New Jersey who is accused of voting illegally in several elections, adding a fresh point of conflict in Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s widening disputes with the Trump administration over immigration enforcement and election security.

The arrest lands amid a broader fight between Washington and Trenton over how immigration laws are enforced and how elections are administered. The Trump administration has pressed New Jersey for access to voter rolls while also challenging Sherrill over state policies that affect federal law enforcement.

Sanata Coulibaly was taken into custody in Hudson County after agents from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI carried out a criminal warrant, officials said. The county runs from West New York to Bayonne, across the Hudson River from Manhattan.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the case involves “this alien from Senegal” and said Coulibaly was charged with unlawfully seeking citizenship or naturalization and with voting as a noncitizen after allegedly casting ballots in three general elections in New Jersey. He said claims that voter fraud is not occurring are false and that the practice poses a serious threat.

Mullin also said DHS and the Trump administration would keep pursuing efforts aimed at protecting election integrity. The arrest follows Sherrill’s July disclosure that a software mistake in New Jersey’s motor vehicle system had wrongly registered about 6,600 people who identified themselves as noncitizens.

State officials later found that fewer than 400 of those newly registered through the error had voted. After that disclosure, New Jersey declined federal requests to hand over voter rolls while conducting its own inquiry.

According to the criminal complaint, Coulibaly voted in the November 2018 midterm election, the July 2020 primary, the November 2020 general election and the 2024 general election while not a U.S. citizen. The complaint says she registered by paper application with the Hudson County superintendent of elections in Jersey City and falsely certified that she was a U.S. citizen.

The Justice Department said Coulibaly first arrived in the United States from Senegal on a B-1 nonimmigrant visa around 1993 and later became a lawful permanent resident. Prosecutors also say she later applied for U.S. citizenship and falsely stated on her N-400 naturalization application that she had never registered to vote or voted in a federal election.

Her case is part of a larger federal push on election integrity, with the Justice Department this month announcing election-related charges against 16 people in several states. Fox News Digital said it reached out to Sherrill for comment.