A beloved former Republican mayor of a small Kansas town was detained by ICE for illegally voting and holding public office as an immigrant.
Joe Ceballos, 55, came to the US when he was just four years old and has lived in Coldwater, a town with a population of around 700, since 1986 when he was a teenager. He has been a legal permanent resident of the US for decades, but he is not a citizen.
Ceballos is considered a pillar of the community in the town, where he served on the city council for eight years before he was elected mayor twice in a landslide, winning more than 80 percent of the vote in the second election.
The former mayor is a proud Republican who voted for Trump in all three of the most recent presidential elections, but he has become a target of the current administration's crackdown on immigration.
'I still strongly believe in Trump’s immigration laws about, "Let’s get the bad guys out of here." You know, they’re murderers, they killed people, they molested people, let’s get them out of here,' Ceballos told the New York Times.
'But I feel like I don’t fit that category. And I feel like that’s how they’re treating me.'
State and federal officials learned that Ceballos had voted as a noncitizen while he was pursuing citizenship last year. He had passed the civics test and during his interview responded yes when asked if he had ever voted.
He told the New York Times that the interviewer's 'eyes got real big, and I was like, "Boy, did I do something wrong?"'
Joe Ceballos, 55, is a beloved member of the Coldwater, Kansas, community, where he was elected mayor twice. He is pictured with his wife and daughter
Ceballos was detained by ICE on Wednesday for illegally voting and holding public office as an immigrant. He is pictured putting up American flags in Coldwater
Hours before Ceballos was re-elected mayor, he was charged with voting illegally as a noncitizen in state court. His case drew the attention of national Republicans, who used it as an example of rampant voter fraud.
Ceballos immediately resigned from his position as mayor due to the charges, and the Trump administration pledged to deport him if he was convicted.
Ceballos pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of disorderly election conduct in the hopes that he could move on from the case and continue to live out his life in the community he loves.
He told the judge that while in high school, he went on a field trip to the very same courthouse he was being tried in, and the county clerk asked him and other students if they wanted to register to vote, so he did. He said he had no idea it was illegal for him to vote as a noncitizen.
In April, the state court sentenced Ceballos to probation and no jail time. 'This is all behind us now,' he said at the time.
But on Wednesday, the beloved Coldwater community member was detained by ICE at a federal office building in Wichita, his lawyer, Sarah Balderas, told the New York Times.
Ceballos is currently being held at a Kansas jail that contracts with the immigration enforcement agency.
His lawyer told the Times that she believes the Trump administration wants to deport her client and that she expects him to receive a summons for immigration court in the near future.
Ceballos is a Republican who voted for Trump in the past three presidential elections, but he has become a target of the administration's immigration crackdown and may be deported
Ceballos has lived in Coldwater since he was a teenager in 1986. He is pictured on the pasture in the town where he lives and raises cattle
Ceballos has not been to Mexico since he was four years old, and his Spanish-speaking skills have eroded over the decades he has spent living in the US.
Culturally, Ceballos is about as American as it gets. He drives a Ram truck and rides a Harley Davidson, speaks with a southern Plains accent, roots for the Dallas Cowboys, and has a workshop next to his house full of tools, car parts and an old Pepsi machine.
He also lives on a pasture raising cattle, works as a lineman for a utility company and hosts an annual mud run for large trucks.
Rick Beeley, a resident of Coldwater, told the New York Times that Ceballos was the only person who volunteered to take his job decorating the town's Main Street with US flags when he wanted to retire from the role.
'I’m a Vietnam vet. He’s just as American as I am,' Beeley told the publication.
Throughout his legal drama, Ceballos has received overwhelming support from the Coldwater community, who have packed the benches at his hearings and put out ads in the local newspaper asking residents to show up for him.
When Ceballos received his probation sentence, the courtroom erupted into applause, and there was a sense of faith that he would be allowed to remain in Coldwater.
But just days later, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement highlighting a 1995 battery conviction against Ceballos, as well as paperwork where he falsely claimed to be a US citizen.
Ceballos has not been in Mexico since he was four years old, and his Spanish-speaking skills have eroded. He is pictured working his job as a lineman for a utility company
The Coldwater community has shown overwhelming support for Ceballos throughout his legal troubles. He is pictured with young men from the community
The former mayor had no other encounters with law enforcement in the more than three decades since then, until he was taken into custody this week.
Earlier this month, he received a letter from federal officials asking him to report for 'processing' to the Wichita office building where he would be detained by ICE.
In a GoFundMe to help pay for Ceballos's legal defense set up by his daughter, Jewell Ceballos Falletti, she wrote: 'Dad never intended to violate the law... Dad truly believed his status as a legal U.S. resident gave him the right to vote.
'It was an honest mistake, and we pray it doesn’t cost him the life in America he has worked so hard to build. For his entire life, Dad has always stepped up to help others in our community.'