Jose Ceballos-Armendariz, the former two-term mayor of Coldwater, Kansas, turned himself in to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the agency’s Wichita office Wednesday, a month after pleading guilty to illegally voting in several American elections as a Mexican green card holder.
Ceballos was transferred to ICE’s detention facility in Chase County following the surrender, FOX4KC reported. He has been held there since.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Ceballos said outside the ICE office. “I don’t know where they’re going to take me and what I can and can’t do inside there.”
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office prosecuted the case. In April, Ceballos pleaded guilty to three counts of disorderly election conduct. He received his green card in 1990 and applied for U.S. citizenship in February 2026. He also carries a prior battery conviction from 1995.
Federal records show Ceballos checked a box on his Kansas voter registration form indicating U.S. citizenship, a claim authorities say was false. Ceballos later told investigators he believed his status as a permanent legal resident entitled him to vote in U.S. elections.
“Obviously, we’ll go through the process,” Ceballos said Wednesday. “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.”
His attorney, Jess Hoeme, said Ceballos was brought to the United States from Mexico at age 4 and registered to vote at 18 during a school field trip to the Comanche County courthouse. “I thought our system was smarter and better than this,” Hoeme said. “I thought there was a degree of humanity and dignity included in the process. That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.”
DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis cited the case Thursday in pushing for passage of the SAVE America Act, a federal bill that would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.
“President Trump has been unequivocal: Nothing is more fundamental than the integrity and security of our elections,” Bis said in a statement to Fox News. “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.”
