Three Liberians Face U.S. Prison, Deportation Over Votes

Three Liberians living in Minnesota are among ten immigrants indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury for allegedly voting or registering to vote while not citizens. Prosecutors say most of the votes were cast in the November 2024 presidential election. They face up to five years in prison, and U.S. officials warn deportation could follow.

Monrovia – She is 61. He is 48. The youngest is 43. Somewhere in Minnesota, three Liberians who built lives far from home now face the possibility of losing them, over a ballot.

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By Rodney D. Sieh

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A federal grand jury in Minneapolis on September 24 indicted Bhator Konah Bryant, Alan Barbu Kargbo and Chis Adam Pettiquoi, along with seven other immigrants, on charges of voting or registering to vote in American elections when they were not American citizens.

Of the ten people charged, from eight different countries, Liberia had the most.

What they are accused of

Prosecutors say Bryant falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen when she registered to vote on October 18, 2024. They do not allege she cast a ballot.

Kargbo and Pettiquoi are each accused of going further. Prosecutors say both falsely claimed citizenship and voted in Minnesota on November 5, 2024, the day Americans chose their president.

All three have already appeared before a federal judge. None has been convicted.

More than prison at stake

On paper, the penalties are heavy: up to five years in prison and a fine of up to US$250,000 for falsely claiming citizenship to vote, and up to one year and US$100,000 for voting as a non-citizen.

But for an immigrant, the harder blow may be the one not written in the charge sheet. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made sure no one missed it.

“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,” he said.

For a 61-year-old woman, that could mean being sent back to a country she may have left decades ago, away from children, grandchildren and everything she has built since.

A community that fought for its place

The charges hit close to home for Minnesota’s Liberian community, one of the largest in the United States, centered in Brooklyn Park and the suburbs around Minneapolis.

Many came running from the civil wars of the 1990s. For years they lived on temporary permission to stay, renewed one deadline at a time, never sure whether the next announcement would send them home. It was not until the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 2019 that many finally got a path to green cards and, eventually, the right to vote.

For people who waited that long for a ballot, the idea that some Liberians may have cast one without the right to do so is painful. And at a time when the Trump administration is pushing hard against immigrants, many in the diaspora will worry that three names on a federal indictment could cast a shadow over thousands who did everything by the book.

Presumed innocent

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, with help from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

U.S. prosecutors were careful to note that an indictment is only an accusation. Bryant, Kargbo and Pettiquoi are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.