An Australian citizen and long-time US resident has been arrested and charged with voter fraud after she allegedly falsely claimed to be a US citizen and cast ballots in the 2022 and 2024 elections.Denise Nataly Migliore, 51, who is originally from Sydney but has lived in the southern state of Louisiana for nearly three decades, was arrested earlier this month following a joint investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), announced in a press release on Tuesday.The long-time resident of Franklinton, a town about 100km north of New Orleans, was charged on June 11 in a four-count indictment for making false statements in order to register to vote and illegal voting in an election, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana announced last month.Ms Migliore was arrested at the federal courthouse in New Orleans on July 1 by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).“This alien from Australia now faces federal charges for falsely claiming to be a US citizen and illegally casting ballots in two elections,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. “Her arrest and charges are the result of the hard work of the men and women of ICE law enforcement and our federal partners. Our message to aliens who vote in American elections is clear: we will find you, arrest you, and you will face the consequences, including criminal charges and deportation. Only Americans should be electing American leaders.”US President Donald Trump shared an article headline about Ms Migliore’s arrest on Truth Social, writing, “Australian alien arrested after investigation finds she illegally voted in two federal elections.”If convicted, she could face up to five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release, and a $US250,000 ($360,000) fine, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ).Speaking to local news site NOLA last month, Ms Migliore — a lawful permanent resident (LPR) in the US — said she did not know she was breaking the law and thought state officials would have stopped her if it was illegal.When she registered to vote online, she clicked “yes” when asked if she was a US citizen.“I have been here almost three decades, I had a pending application for citizenship, and I just considered myself a citizen,” she said. “I just didn’t realise that it was such a big deal.”Ms Migliore added, “I feel like I’m being used as a guinea pig to show how flawed the electoral system is, and I’m being unfairly targeted.”Hers is the first criminal prosecution in the state under a protocol election officials began last year checking the citizenship status of all registered voters in the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database administered by DHS, according to the report.Rand Paul, Republican US Senator for Kentucky, wrote on X, “I keep hearing that voter fraud involving noncitizens is rare, so why bother verifying citizenship at all? My answer is simple: because Americans deserve certainty, not assumptions, about who is voting in their federal elections. The SAVE America Act requires proof of citizenship to register, plain and simple. Senate leadership needs to bring the bill to the floor for a vote once and for all.”Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said it was “providing consular assistance to an Australian facing legal action in the United States of America”.“Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment,” a spokesman said.frank.chung@news.com.auRead related topics:Donald Trump