{"id":28393,"date":"2026-05-13T22:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/28393\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T22:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:14:09","slug":"ice-detains-ex-kansas-mayor-joe-ceballos-who-voted-illegally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/28393\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE Detains Ex-Kansas Mayor Joe Ceballos Who Voted Illegally"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Ceballos, the small-town mayor who held office and voted without being a U.S. citizen<\/a>, hoped that pleading guilty<\/a> to misdemeanors would allow him to move forward with the life he built for decades in Coldwater, Kan.<\/p>\n

After he was sentenced to probation last month, Mr. Ceballos expressed optimism that \u201cthis is all behind us now.\u201d Perhaps, he said, he might even become a citizen someday.<\/p>\n

But Mr. Ceballos, a green card holder whose case drew the attention of the Trump administration, was detained on Wednesday at a federal office building in Wichita, according to his lawyer, Sarah L. Balderas. She said he handed over his phone to an officer and was led to a detention area.<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately answer questions about the case. But as of Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Ceballos was listed online as being in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a Kansas jail that contracts with the agency. The federal government can seek to deport green card holders who are convicted of certain crimes.<\/p>\n

Ms. Balderas said she believed the government wants to have Mr. Ceballos deported, and that she expected him to soon receive a notice to appear in immigration court. <\/p>\n

She said her client intended to fight deportation and would seek to be released on bond while his case played out. Mr. Ceballos\u2019s character, his ties to his community and the decades he has spent in the United States could all weigh in his favor, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cTypically, when someone admits to doing these things, it\u2019s not good,\u201d Ms. Balderas said. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s the end of the road. There\u2019s still the chance that the immigration judge will let him stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Ceballos, 55, was born in Mexico, but he had been a fixture in Coldwater since he was a teenager. He attended the local high school, raised a family and worked at the utility company. He also registered to vote, cast ballots for Republican candidates and was twice elected mayor of Coldwater, population 700.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ceballos was a lawful permanent resident of the United States, but he was not a citizen. Because of that, it was illegal for him to vote, a fact Mr. Ceballos has said he did not know.<\/p>\n

On Election Day last fall, Mr. Ceballos\u2019s neighbors re-elected him in a landslide. That same week, the Kansas attorney general\u2019s office charged him with several election-related felonies that carried the potential of years in prison.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ceballos resigned as mayor and soon became a face of the Trump administration\u2019s crackdown on voter fraud. News outlets across the state and country picked up the story. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security vowed that the government would seek his removal from the country if he was convicted.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ceballos\u2019s neighbors rallied to his defense. They packed the courtroom for his court appearances, attested to his character in letters to the editor and planted yard signs expressing their support. Many in the overwhelmingly Republican town voiced frustrations with Republican officials who used the case to make political points.<\/p>\n

When he pleaded guilty in state court last month to three misdemeanor counts of disorderly election conduct, there was a sense in Coldwater that Mr. Ceballos would be able to stay. When the hearing ended with no jail time being ordered, his neighbors applauded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s perfectly fine in this court because I do think that\u2019s justice,\u201d the judge said as the clapping died down.<\/p>\n

The sense of relief proved short-lived. <\/p>\n

A few days after the hearing, homeland security officials sent out another news release about Mr. Ceballos, which also noted his 1995 conviction for battery.<\/p>\n

Lauren Bis, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said in the release that \u201cthis alien has now been convicted\u201d and that \u201cour elections belong to American citizens, not foreign citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent days, Ms. Balderas said her client received a \u201ccall-in letter\u201d from federal officials that asked him to report to Wichita for \u201cprocessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Ceballos arranged for a ride on Wednesday for the two-hour trek to Wichita from Coldwater \u2014 away from the pasture where he raises cattle and the house where he lives with his wife and the City Hall where he once presided over council meetings.<\/p>\n

He hoped that he would be able to return.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s worried about his family, but he understands what\u2019s going on,\u201d Ms. Balderas said. \u201cAnd honestly, I think he\u2019s ready to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Ceballos, the small-town mayor who held office and voted without being a U.S. citizen, hoped that pleading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[17305,2127,8,13128,13126,17306,5074,9,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-28393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-ceballos","9":"tag-deportation","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-us","12":"tag-immigration-detention","13":"tag-joe-1970","14":"tag-mayors","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116569575416474229","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}