The adored Republican mayor of a modest Great Plains town could face deportation after admitting to what he has insisted was an innocent mistake.
Joe Ceballos, 55, is a green card holder who was born in Mexico and arrived in the US when he was around four years old.
Ceballos was charged in November with six felonies related to voting illegally while being a noncitizen, just one day after he won reelection as mayor of Coldwater, Kansas – a sleepy town about two hours west of Wichita with less than 700 residents – with 83 percent of the vote, according to the Kansas City Star.
He resigned as mayor in December but said he thought he was allowed to vote thanks to his legal permanent resident status.
On Monday, Ceballos pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of disorderly election conduct, reduced from the original felonies.
The Department of Homeland Security had said in November that Ceballos would be ‘placed in removal proceedings’ if convicted, though that was when he was facing felony charges.
Jess Hoeme, an attorney for Ceballos, said he hoped the reduced charges would help the former lawmaker remain in the US.
‘But you can’t say with any degree of certainty what immigration [authorities are] going to do anymore,’ Hoeme told the outlet.
Former Coldwater, Kansas, mayor Joe Ceballos, 55, pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of disorderly election conduct on Monday
Ceballos was charged with six felonies related to voting illegally while being a noncitizen in November and originally faced more than five years in prison before striking a deal this week
The widely popular Ceballos had twice been elected as mayor of Coldwater (pictured) but resigned on December 8
Ceballos agreed to pay a $2,000 fine and serve a year of probation. He originally faced more than five years in prison.
After court on Monday, Ceballos voiced his gratitude for his community’s continued support.
Crowds had repeatedly packed the courtroom for Ceballos’ appearances and erupted in applause and cheers after his verdict was read, according to The New York Times.
‘They’ve never looked at me like a Mexican or as different,’ Ceballos told KSN. ‘They just took me in as one of their own.’
He added: ‘They had faith in me, and they always thought that I didn’t do anything wrong on purpose.’
In November, the DHS said Ceballos was granted a green card in 1990 and applied for US citizenship last February.
‘This alien committed a felony by voting in American elections,’ Tricia McLaughlin, then the DHS assistant secretary, said. ‘If convicted, he will be placed in removal proceedings.’
McLaughlin, who later left the agency at the end of February, added at the time: ‘Our elections belong to American citizens, not foreign citizens.’
The DHS also published copies of Ceballos’ voter registration forms in which he signed below the text reading, ‘I swear or affirm that I am a citizen of the United States.’
Ceballos’ attorney, Jess Hoeme, said he hoped the deal would allow Ceballos to remain stateside with his family (pictured)
The DHS previously said in November that Ceballos would be ‘placed in removal proceedings’ if convicted
Ceballos resigned as Coldwater mayor on December 8, according to a Facebook post by the city’s council.
The former lawmaker has insisted since last year that the ballots he cast were an honest mistake that could now destroy his livelihood in the US.
‘I haven’t seen Mexico since I was four,’ Ceballos told the KLC Journal in November. ‘I don’t speak Spanish anymore. If I get deported it would wreck my life.’
Ceballos’ daughter, Jewell Ceballos Falletti, had claimed in a GoFundMe that her dad ‘truly believed his status as a legal US resident gave him the right to vote.’
‘While on a high school field trip to the Comanche County Courthouse, the County Clerk encouraged Dad and his fellow students to register to vote,’ she said.
Falletti added: ‘It was an honest mistake, and we pray it doesn’t cost him the life in America he has worked so hard to build.’
The Kansas Attorney General, Kris Kobach, told the Daily Mail on Tuesday that Ceballos’ case ‘demonstrates the very real personal and community consequences of having no citizenship verification at the time of registration or indeed at any point in the voting process.’
Kobach added that ‘every case is considered individually’ and that ‘a plea [was] in the public’s best interest’ when it came to Ceballos.
He stressed that his office had ‘no role’ in Ceballos’ citizenship, residence, or deportation proceedings.
‘My office’s role is to enforce Kansas voting laws,’ Kobach told the Daily Mail.
Kris Kobach, the Kansas Attorney General, told the Daily Mail that Ceballos’ case ‘demonstrates the very real personal and community consequences of having no citizenship verification at the time of registration or indeed at any point in the voting process’
The DHS previously posted an image showing Ceballos’ signature where it asks to swear or affirm that the person voting is a US citizen
Ceballos had previously told the KLC Journal that he ‘probably’ voted for Kobach four times. Ceballos also said he voted for Donald Trump as president all three times he was on the ballot.
‘I’m pretty sure I voted for them because I always voted for all the Republicans,’ Ceballos told the outlet.
The voting without being qualified charges brought against Ceballos were related to votes cast in November 2022, November 2023 and August 2024, according to a criminal complaint filed in Comanche County District Court in November.
Hoeme, Ceballos’ attorney, said that Kobach’s office had ‘finally looked at the person and the case and realized that justice would not be served by any kind of disposition that would require or enable his removal from the United States.’
He added that Ceballos ‘just absolutely loves’ his community and was grateful for how they stood by him during the charges.
‘They have circled around him and done anything and everything that they can to help, and that, I think, is part of the reason that Attorney General Kobach started to pay attention,’ Hoeme told the Kansas City Star.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the DHS and Hoeme, Ceballos’ attorney, for further comment.
