Petaluma resident arrested in Trump administration’s crackdown on suspected fraudulent voters

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The Trump administration’s claims of widespread non-citizen voting came to Sonoma County on Monday.

Among the 28 people charged with federal crimes as part of Operation Protect the Vote, the U.S. Justice Department’s roundup of California residents it says registered to vote illegally, was a 43-year-old Petaluma woman named Verónica Bullene.

According to the complaint filed Monday by the DOJ, Bullene also goes by the name Verónica Hernández Martínez. Prosecutors say the Mexican-born woman made false statements on her naturalization application, registered to vote in 2022 and 2023 and voted in 2024.

Bullène is a legal permanent resident, often referred to as a green card holder. People with this status enjoy a wide range of rights in America, but they cannot vote in federal, state, or most local elections.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Alex Tse signed an arrest warrant for Bullene on October 16. She had not been arrested when the government filed information on the accused earlier this week.

Bullene faces four charges, a mix of felonies and misdemeanors. The most serious charge, attempting to obtain naturalization contrary to law, carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and “potential immigration consequences.”

Bullene’s husband, Daniel, did not respond to phone calls or text messages. No one answered the door to the couple’s apartment Tuesday afternoon, a block away in downtown Petaluma. A neighbor who was home at the time did not answer a reporter’s door.

Bullene is currently represented by the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Northern District of California, according to a staff member in the agency’s San Francisco office. The Democratic press was unable to contact his lawyer.

The voting crackdown was announced in a DOJ press release, treated with skepticism by California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, and criticized by immigrant advocacy groups who say the department used questionable private sources to compile a list of 20,000 “probable non-citizen registrants” that it asked the state to investigate.

Rep. Jared Huffman, appearing Tuesday in Petaluma alongside Rep. Mike Thompson, noted in answering a question about ICE enforcement that the House Administrative Committee had met with election lawyers, academics and watchdog groups “to identify all the different ways this administration could attempt to scare and confuse, challenge, suppress and spoil this election.”

The 28 people charged in Operation Protect the Vote live across a large swath of California and come from 14 different countries.

Bullene is one of nine immigrants from Mexico.

In her criminal complaint, the government claims she was granted lawful permanent resident status in December 2020, a little more than a year after filing her application. In November 2022, prosecutors allege, Bullene submitted an application for an electronic driver’s license to the California Department of Motor Vehicles; under the section titled “Eligibility and Voter Registration,” she answered “No” next to a question asking if she was a U.S. citizen.

Four days later, according to federal prosecutors, Bullene submitted a signed voter registration form in Humboldt County that same day — the DOJ complaint mistakenly refers to the town as “Gerberville” instead of Garberville — checking a box indicating she was a U.S. citizen. She voted that day, according to the agency.

The following year, prosecutors attest, Bullene registered to vote in Sonoma County. She voted again in November 2024, although court documents suggest it was done in San Francisco.

In October 2025, the complaint further alleges that Bullene submitted an application for naturalization, that is, full citizenship. This form asks applicants if they have ever claimed to be a U.S. citizen or if they have ever voted in an election. Bullene answered “No” each time, prosecutors say.

The Justice Department never contacted Sonoma County before filing the complaint, Registrar of Voters Evelyn Mendez told The Press Democrat. She only became aware of the Bullene affair when she was contacted by another journalist.

Mendez has been disappointed by the evidence released so far by the DOJ.

“I’m not investigating that,” she said. “The information in it for the voter is not enough for us to look up someone. There’s no date of birth. There’s no address. The information is pretty vague. Where did they get that from? Where did they get that voter’s history?”

Mendez had an additional question: “Why is this happening now, 15 days before the election?” » she wondered.

Several defendants who spoke to other media outlets expressed bewilderment at accusations that they had voted in the United States, or flatly denied the claim.

“How could I even vote? » David Shapiro, a Georgian emigrant and San Jose resident, told the Mercury News. “I’m not even a citizen.”

Omar Muñoz, 72, a legal permanent resident of Belize, was arrested at his home in Commerce early Monday morning, the Los Angeles Times reported. Photographers, apparently notified by the DOJ, were there to capture the moment.

Muñoz showed up in court later that day, still dressed in the pajamas he was arrested in, shackled at the waist and with his feet handcuffed. His daughter told the Times that Muñoz was recovering from neck surgery, a rotator cuff repair on one shoulder and a double knee replacement.

Seven of the Operation Protect the Vote defendants are not even accused of voting, only for misleading immigration officials on their citizenship forms.

Rick Hasen, director of the Saving Democracy Project at UCLA Law School, questioned whether mistakenly registering to vote or voting constitutes a violation of the law.

“We know from experience that sometimes people register to vote by accident, like when there is a mistake at the DMV,” Hasen wrote in a blog post Monday. “There is only a crime if the government can prove willful violations of federal law.”

That prospect was rejected by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, who has vigorously tried to enforce President Donald Trump’s mission to erase thousands of names from California’s voter rolls ahead of a general election that could see Republicans lose both houses of Congress.

“You have to do everything you can to register to vote; it’s not something that happens to you,” Essayli told the Los Angeles Times.

The defendants were summoned to court for a preliminary hearing on November 9.

DOJ lawyers requested that Bullene’s case be sealed. On Tuesday, he did not appear in the Federal Court database.

You can reach staff writer Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @Skinny_Post.