A former Republican mayor of a small Kansas town has been taken into federal immigration custody after pleading guilty to illegally voting as a non-citizen.
Jose “Joe” Ceballos-Armendariz, 55, a Mexican national who has held a green card since 1990, turned himself in to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials at their Wichita office on Wednesday.
Ceballos is now being held at the ICE-contracted Chase County Jail in Cottonwood Falls and faces potential deportation proceedings.
The green card holder served two terms as mayor of Coldwater, Kansas, a conservative Comanche County town of fewer than 700 residents.
Ceballos was first elected in 2021 and won re-election in 2025 with 83% of the vote.
The charges surfaced the day after that re-election when Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach announced felony election fraud charges.
Court records show Ceballos illegally voted in multiple elections despite knowing he was not a U.S. citizen. He also admitted during a January citizenship application that he had falsely claimed U.S. citizenship.
In April, Ceballos pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of disorderly election conduct in a plea deal that included a $2,000 fine and one year of probation but no jail time.
Ceballos has claimed he believed his green card allowed him to vote and felt “misled” by the plea agreement.
Speaking outside the ICE facility after surrendering, he told reporters, “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know where they’re going to take me and what I can and can’t do inside there,” according to a report from Fox News.
“Obviously, we’ll go through the process,” Ceballos said. “We’ll do what they want us to do and, you know, take one day at a time. Just do what they ask; that is my goal.”
Ceballos’s attorney called the detention “a travesty of justice,” arguing the misdemeanor plea was not supposed to trigger immigration consequences.
In a statement to Fox News, DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis praised the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program and urged Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require photo ID for voters and other election security measures.
“The SAVE program is a critical tool for state and local governments to safeguard the integrity of elections across the country,” Bis said.
“President Trump has been unequivocal: Nothing is more fundamental than the integrity and security of our elections. That’s why the Trump Administration has repeatedly called on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act — commonsense legislation that requires voters to present photo ID and implements other critical measures to protect federal elections from fraud. Our elections belong to American citizens, not foreign citizens.”
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