Mexican Green Card Holder And Ex-Kansas Mayor Pleads Guilty To Illegal Voting

Jose "Joe" Ceballos, a Mexican national and former two-term mayor of Coldwater, Kansas, pleaded guilty this week to illegally voting multiple times and now faces possible removal from the United States.

Ceballos admitted guilt to three counts of disorderly election conduct in a prosecution brought by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach's office. He falsely claimed U.S. citizenship on a Kansas voter registration form and later denied that claim on a U.S. naturalization application. Ceballos received a green card in 1990, has a 1995 battery conviction on his record, and applied for U.S. citizenship in February.

The episode traces back to the voter registration question that triggered a federal check. The Department of Homeland Security said the federal SAVE system flagged the registration. DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis credited the Trump-era SAVE program with identifying the case and linked the finding to support for the SAVE America Act voter ID legislation.

Earlier federal notices described a noncitizen convicted of illegal voting and facing removal without naming him. Subsequent state filings and court papers identified Ceballos by name and detailed the three disorderly election conduct counts and the mixed statements on his citizenship status.

DHS officials say the SAVE system has identified more than 24,000 potential noncitizens on voter rolls since April 2025, a figure cited by proponents of stricter voter ID and verification laws as evidence of broader risks to election integrity.