The former mayor of a conservative Kansas town was taken into custody by immigration authorities Wednesday after acknowledging last year that he had voted in elections despite not being a US citizen.
Joe Ceballos, who was born in Mexico and is a legal permanent US resident, was detained during a meeting at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Wichita, Kansas, according to his attorney, Jess Hoeme. He said Ceballos now fears he could be deported.
The 55-year-old resigned as mayor of Coldwater in December while facing state charges over voting as a noncitizen. While seeking citizenship in 2025, Ceballos admitted during an interview that he had voted, not knowing that green card holders don’t qualify, Hoeme said.
Ceballos was charged with voting illegally but pleaded guilty in April to misdemeanors in a deal with the Kansas attorney general. His case has drawn attention from the Trump administration and inspired supporters in his community, some of whom held signs reading “We Support Mayor Joe” and “ICE Out” as Ceballos walked into the federal building in Wichita.
“Let Joe go!” the crowd yelled.
“Thinking what could happen — it’s just kind of crazy,” Ceballos told reporters. “Obviously nervous. 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.”
In a statement to CNN, the Department of Homeland Security said Ceballos, who was granted a green card in 1990, “falsely claimed he was a US citizen” on voter registration forms and “again committed a felony by lying on his naturalization application that he had never claimed to be a US citizen.”
Trump and other Republicans have been warning of the dangers of noncitizens voting in elections since the beginning of the 2024 presidential election. Research, even by Republican election officials, show the problem is rare.
This year, Trump has been pushing Republicans in Congress to pass the SAVE Act, which among other things would require documented proof of US citizenship to register and vote.
The administration also has significantly upgraded a program within Homeland Security that checks citizenship. At least 25 states, most of them controlled by Republicans, have used that system to check their voter rolls.
Ceballos was brought to the US from Mexico by family when he was 4 years old. Hoeme said lawyers would next try to get an immigration judge to release him on bond.
He said Ceballos, at age 18, was encouraged to register to vote on the spot during a school field trip to the Comanche County courthouse. Ceballos has previously said in interviews with reporters that he voted for Republicans.
He was twice elected mayor of Coldwater, population 700, and also served on the city council. Ceballos won a new term in November but resigned after state Attorney General Kris Kobach charged him with voting without being qualified and election perjury.
Kobach’s office, however, reached a deal with Ceballos. He pleaded guilty to disorderly election conduct, which Hoeme described as a misdemeanor similar to disturbing the peace.
“He has not been convicted of any kind of voter fraud. It should not have impacted his immigration status,” Hoeme said. “The Trump administration and ICE have doubled down on nonsense that he is a criminal.”
Ceballos has been a popular figure in Coldwater, where an advertisement in The Western Star newspaper encouraged people to support him.
“He’s kind of got to live the American dream, to come from absolutely nothing and build up — I don’t know about wealth — but to build up a business and have a job and be a productive part of society,” longtime friend Ryan Swayze told Wichita station KAKE-TV.
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