NEW: Illegal Alien Mayor Hit With Multiple Felony Charges

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has announced charges against a small-town politician in southwest Kansas after it was revealed that he had voted in U.S. elections and managed to become mayor despite lacking legal status in the country.

Kobach announced that Coldwater Mayor Jose (Joe) Ceballos would be charged on November 5, just one day after voters reelected him for another term in office. The attorney general’s office filed six counts in Comanche County District Court — three counts of voting without being qualified and three counts of election perjury — for voting in the November 2022, November 2023 and August 2024 elections.

Ceballos does have legal residence in the United States, though he is not a citizen and is barred from voting in U.S. elections under federal and state law.

All offenses classified as nonperson felonies, meaning they do not involve direct physical harm. If convicted, Ceballos could face more than five years behind bars.

When announcing the charges, Kobach stressed that the issue of noncitizen voting continues to plague American elections and is far from a political talking point.

“In Kansas, it is against the law to vote if you are not a U.S. citizen. We allege that Mr. Ceballos did it multiple times,” the attorney general said.

“Voting by noncitizens, including both legal and illegal aliens, is a very real problem. … Every time a noncitizen votes, it effectively cancels out a U.S. citizen’s vote.”

Federal immigration officials echoed Kobach’s claims and noted that the Trump Administration has expanded tools employed by states to identify noncitizen voters. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Tragesser said the situation was “absolutely unacceptable and, sadly, no surprise given the years of lax voting security in the United States.”

He added that strengthening the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program has been a priority, so states can ensure “only U.S. citizens are on the voter rolls,” Newsmax reported.

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab praised the Trump Administration for expanding efforts to crack down on noncitizen voting. “We now have tools, thanks to the current White House, that we haven’t had in over 10 years,” Schwab said. “That we can check through the SAVE program, to find out if folks end up on our voter rolls. And they could be a legal resident, but they’re not a citizen. We want to make sure that gets clarified.”

The SAVE program — run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Department of Homeland Security — lets government agencies verify immigration and citizenship status for things like licenses or voter rolls.

The Coldwater case bears shocking resemblance to a similar case in Iowa, where the superintendent of the state’s largest school district was found to be a noncitizen who had voted in U.S. elections.

That scandal erupted back in September when Ian Andre Roberts, an illegal alien who managed to become superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, was arrested following a police pursuit.

Roberts, a native of Guyana who once competed as an Olympic runner, had been serving as head of the district, the largest in Iowa, since 2023 despite a final order of removal issued in May 2024.

According to a senior ICE official, Roberts fled from immigration officers after they identified themselves. He allegedly sped away in his vehicle before abandoning it on the roadside. With assistance from the Iowa State Patrol and a police dog, agents tracked him down in a wooded area roughly 200 yards from the car.

When agents searched the vehicle, they discovered a loaded handgun, a fixed-blade hunting knife, and $3,000 in cash, raising further questions about why a sitting superintendent was carrying weapons and large amounts of money while under an active deportation order. ICE also revealed Roberts had a prior weapons arrest from 2020, though the ultimate outcome of that case remains unclear.

Roberts was listed as an active voter in Maryland at the time of his arrest.