@syracuse.com: Marva Cook has lived in Syracuse for nearly all of her 66 years. She graduated from North Syracuse High School and played basketball for Syracuse University, where she was the top scorer for the women's team during the 1979-80 season. Cook is a social worker at McKinley Brighton Elementary School. And in the spring, she is the Easter bunny at All Saints Church. Cook recently discovered she was adopted by the family she grew up with in Syracuse. While searching for her birth mother, she also learned she was born in Germany, not the United States. Today, the U.S. government arrested Cook for “illegal voting by alien" — a misdemeanor charge that accuses her of voting in federal elections without becoming a citizen. The Syracuse woman was arrested as part of a national hunt for non-citizen voters. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigated Cook’s voting record and tracked her down at her Syracuse home to insist she turn herself in at ICE's Mattydale headquarters. Cook now has a green card and has not voted since 2022, election records show. When she handed her phone to a friend and walked into ICE's headquarters with her lawyer, she said she would fight whatever the government throws at her. “It’s a beautiful day for a dismissal,” Cook said. 📷: Dennis Nett, provided

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Wednesday 21 October 2026 19:32:35 GMT