Life has gotten very complicated for a beloved small-town mayor who is reportedly a legal resident, but not a U.S. citizen.

Ceballos has twice been elected mayor of his small town as a proud Republican who’s voted for President Donald Trump three times and still supports him despite allegedly being targeted by the current administration.

“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.”

Former mayor of Coldwater, Kansas Joe Ceballos was sentenced this week for voting illegally as a non-U.S. citizen while serving as mayor. Ceballos is currently in the United States on a green card, but only U.S. citizens can vote, and in Kansas, serve as mayor. CBS News’ Ian Lee… pic.twitter.com/DyYZTFjLpG

— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 22, 2026

Ceballos was reportedly pursuing citizenship when he was asked if he had ever voted in U.S. elections. He told The New York Times that the interviewer’s eyes got “real big” when he said that he had.

“I was like, ‘Boy, did I do something wrong?'”

Ceballos resigned his position as mayor after his landslide victory for a second term and pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of disorderly election conduct. In April, he was given a fine and sentenced to probation with no jail time, and he had hoped to put it all behind him.

But his case sparked an investigation into possible widespread voter fraud in Kansas, and on Wednesday, Ceballos was detained and put in jail.

Sarah Balderas, Ceballos’s lawyer, says she believes that the Trump administration wants her client deported.

According to Coldwater residents, Ceballos speaks with a Southern Plains accent, rides a Harley, loves football, and is as American as apple pie.

“I’m a Vietnam vet. He’s just as American as I am,” Rick Beeley told the NYT, saying that Ceballos was the only one to volunteer to take over the job of decorating the town’s Main Street in American flags.

Ceballos works as a lineman and raises cattle, but the DHS has reportedly released paperwork where he had falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen.

It raises the question: Should there be exceptions to the strictly enforced immigration laws?

The folks of Coldwater certainly think so, and have rallied around Ceballos with a GoFundMe to raise money for his legal fees.

“Dad never intended to violate the law,” his daughter Jewell Ceballos Falletti wrote. “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.”

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