Trump-allied group launches Spanish-language ads warning noncitizens against voting

WASHINGTON — A conservative group is launching a Spanish-language advertisement in critical battleground states that strikes two drastically different tones — first touting voting as patriotic but then warning that it is illegal for noncitizens to cast ballots in federal elections and that doing so can be a crime punishable by deportation.

The ad campaign, shared exclusively with NBC News, was paid for by the Article III Foundation, a dark-money group linked to Mike Davis, a controversial ally of Donald Trump. Voter registration deadlines are nearing, and early voting is beginning in states with sizable Latino populations, like Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

It is very rare for noncitizens to try to vote in elections; studies have found virtually no instances of it happening and no evidence that it could be occurring at a rate large enough to affect the outcome of an election. A study by the Brennan Center for Justice, a group focused on democracy, criminal justice, voting rights and other issues,which has been sharply critical of Trump’s claims of voter fraud, foundthat in 2016, officials referred to authorities 30 of 23.5 million votes in 42 jurisdictions as having been cast by possible noncitizens.

Trump has frequently argued without evidence that immigrants are being let into the country to help Democrats win elections and that local officials are intentionally turning a blind eye — a charge that he has made with increasing frequency as he echoes his baseless 2020 claims that rampant fraud is occurring in the U.S. election system.

Davis, whose group is running the ads, has echoed the charges from Trump and insisted that the federal government isn't doing enough to stop noncitizens from voting.

One target for the