Joe Ceballos, the two-term former mayor of the small, conservative Kansas city of Coldwater, was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday after he acknowledged voting in U.S. elections while a legal permanent resident, his attorney said. The detention at an ICE office in Wichita marks an escalation of a state-level plea deal into potential federal deportation, drawing supporters to the courthouse and raising fresh questions about the administration’s enforcement priorities against non-citizen voting.
Ceballos, 55, is a Mexican-born legal permanent resident who was brought to the United States by his family when he was 4 years old. At 18, he said he was encouraged to register to vote right then and there during a school trip to the Comanche County courthouse, his lawyer Jess Hoeme explained. Ceballos has said in earlier interviews that he voted for Republican candidates. He apparently did not know that permanent residents are barred from casting ballots.
He won the mayor’s seat twice in the farming community of about 700 people and was re‑elected in November, but resigned in December after Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach filed charges of illegal voting and election perjury. In April, Ceballos pleaded guilty in a deal that reduced the charges to a misdemeanor: “conducta indebida en el proceso electoral,” which Hoeme likened to a disorderly conduct offense.
Outside the federal building Wednesday, about two dozen supporters hoisted signs that read “apoyamos al alcalde Joe” (we support Mayor Joe) and “Fuera ICE” (ICE out), and chanted “¡Dejen ir a Joe!” (Let Joe go!). Ceballos spoke briefly to reporters before entering.
“Pensar en lo que podría pasar… es una locura,” he said. “Obviamente estoy nervioso. No sé qué va a pasar. No sé adónde me van a llevar y qué puedo y qué no puedo hacer ahí dentro.”
(“Thinking about what could happen… it’s crazy. Obviously I’m 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 in there.”)
Hoeme said he would ask an immigration judge to release Ceballos on bond and argued that the misdemeanor conviction should have no immigration consequences. “He hasn’t been found guilty of any kind of electoral fraud. It shouldn’t have affected his immigration status,” Hoeme said. “The Trump government and ICE have latched onto the nonsense that he’s a criminal.”
The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The administration has made non‑citizen voting a signature issue since the 2024 presidential campaign, pressing Republicans in Congress to pass the SAVE Act, which would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration. The DHS has also expanded a citizenship‑verification program that at least 25 mostly Republican‑led states have used to scrub their voter rolls.
Nevertheless, repeated investigations — including those conducted by Republican election officials — have found that voting by non‑citizens is rare, and scholars note that existing safeguards catch cases before they affect election outcomes.
Ceballos remains a popular figure in Coldwater, where the local newspaper The Western Star published an advertisement encouraging residents to support him. “Somehow he’s been able to live the American dream — to come from absolutely nothing and get ahead, to stand up a business, have a job and be a productive part of society,” longtime friend Ryan Swayze told Wichita station KAKE‑TV.