Illegal immigrant charged with illegally voting in 2024 election in Texas

An illegal immigrant who’d been living under the stolen identity of an American citizen has been charged with voting in Texas in the 2024 presidential election, federal authorities said.

Eliseo Morales-Tapia, 58, used a stolen birth certificate and Social Security number to get driver’s licenses, a Social Security card and a U.S. passport, according to the criminal charges. He also registered to vote and did vote under the stolen identity.

As recently as last year, in updating his license, he checked the box stating he was a U.S. citizen and wanted to register to vote, prosecutors said. He is actually a citizen of Mexico.

Authorities only learned of the situation after the man whose identity was being used reported to the FBI that he’d been booted off Social Security disability because the government said his pay records showed he’d been working.

He lived in Chicago at the time, and was even in prison for part of that time that the pay records showed he was working in Texas.

The U.S. citizen, whose name wasn’t given in court documents, told investigators he believed his ex-wife had given his birth certificate to Mr. Tapia.

Mr. Tapia also knew the name of the U.S. citizen’s father, and the mother’s maiden name. He also had a college ID, vehicle title and utility bills in the American citizen’s name.

He managed to get a passport in 2015 and renewed it last year.

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Authorities said he also used another identity at other points.

The case comes amid a debate over the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, and ID when actually casting a ballot.

It’s unlikely the Tapia case would have been caught by the proposed law, however, because authorities said he had all the documents to suggest he was a citizen.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.