Democrats keep one favorite line handy every time somebody asks for proof of citizenship at the voter registration desk.
But federal agents spent recent weeks slapping handcuffs on people in three states, and the charging papers tell another story.
And the way the anchors at ABC, CBS, and NBC handled those arrests says plenty about whose side they picked.
Six Network Newscasts and a Stopwatch That Never Started
The Media Research Center’s NewsBusters put a clock on the Big Three. Analyst Geoffrey Dickens and his team reviewed every evening and morning newscast on ABC, CBS, and NBC from the start of September 2026 into early October.
They found zero seconds on noncitizens caught voting or trying to register.
That covers ABC’s World News Tonight and Good Morning America, the CBS Evening News and CBS Mornings, plus NBC Nightly News and Today. Six shows, better than a month of airtime, and not one mention.
But the networks can’t plead ignorance. All three covered New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, when she announced in July 2026 that a “serious software error” had registered roughly 6,600 people who weren’t citizens. NewsBusters found the coverage dried up one day later.
Sherrill herself said fewer than 400 of those people went on to cast ballots, according to Scripps News. Funny how a number like that earns one news cycle and then drops off the face of the earth.
What Federal Prosecutors Put on the Record
Fox News Digital did the legwork the networks skipped. In Philadelphia County, federal authorities arrested three noncitizens on election-related charges.
Prosecutors allege Sade Guppy, a national of Trinidad and Tobago, voted illegally in the 2022 midterms. They charged Cliff Sanon, a Haitian illegal alien according to Fox News Digital, with submitting a fraudulent voter registration application ahead of the 2026 Pennsylvania primary.
And then there’s Mahady Sacko. DHS told Fox News Digital that Sacko, a Mauritanian illegal alien, allegedly voted in seven federal elections since 2008.
Seven. If that allegation holds up in court, somebody missed the same man at the ballot box for the better part of two decades.
Philadelphia County sits partly inside the district of US Representative Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA). Scanlon voted against the SAVE Act in 2025 and declared, “Let me be perfectly clear: This is a non-issue.”
Minnesota came next. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced indictments of 10 foreign nationals from Brazil, Ghana, Germany, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Liberia, and Canada. “Today’s charges allege that ten foreign nationals committed voter fraud in Minnesota, one voting illegally as recently as this August’s primary,” Blanche said, according to Fox 9 in Minneapolis. He added that the issue should not be a “partisan concept.”
New Jersey rounded out the list. Prosecutors there charged three residents from Jamaica, Venezuela, and Senegal with illegally voting and making false statements on citizenship applications.
Every one of these defendants gets a day in court. A grand jury indictment stays an accusation until a jury says otherwise, and some of these cases may well fall apart.
Why the Anchors Suddenly Lost Interest
Still, look at what the networks chose to do with the story. Sixteen people across three states, federal charges, a sitting Attorney General at the podium. Any assignment editor in America would call that news.
But covering it means admitting something awkward. Fox News Digital noted that Democrats have described noncitizen voting as “extremely rare” or insisted it “doesn’t happen.” The second claim can’t survive a single booking photo.
And that’s where President Trump comes in. He has said for years that the voter rolls need a citizenship check, and the press treated him like a crank for it. The SAVE Act, which requires proof of citizenship to register in federal elections, does exactly what he asked for. Democrats counter that the bill would make voting harder for eligible Americans.
Maybe so, for a few folks who have to dig a birth certificate out of a shoebox. Americans do the same thing to get a passport, a mortgage, or a Social Security check.
This fight didn’t start with Trump, either. Back in 2005, a commission led by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker recommended photo identification for voters. Nobody called Jimmy Carter a threat to democracy over it.
Blanche told reporters the Justice Department has charged more than 90 people with voter fraud offenses since President Trump returned to office. Does 90 cases prove millions of illegal ballots? No, and it would be a stretch to say so. Nobody actually knows the full number, which is sort of the whole problem.
A state can’t count what it never checks. New Jersey’s own system signed up thousands of people who pressed “no” on the citizenship question, and it took years for anyone to notice.
And the Big Three have settled on a simple way to protect the “non-issue” talking point. They just don’t show the arrests. A viewer who gets his news from the 6:30 broadcast has no idea any of this happened.
That silence does more work than any slanted report could. An anchor who spins a story at least tells the audience the story exists.
Expect the pattern to hold. If more indictments land before November, the networks will have to decide whether another round of mugshots finally qualifies as news. Don’t bet the farm on it.
Sources: NewsBusters / Media Research Center, “ABC/CBS/NBC Spend 0 Minutes on Illegal Immigrants Caught Trying to Vote”; Fox News Digital, “Election crime arrests keep piling up as Dems insist it ‘just doesn’t happen'”; Fox 9 Minneapolis, “Minnesota voter fraud: 10 foreign nationals indicted for illegally voting in state elections”; Scripps News, “New Jersey identifies software error that registered 6,600 noncitizens to vote”; Commission on Federal Election Reform, 2005 report