Kansas Mayor’s ICE Detention Shakes Up Town
Jose “Joe” Ceballos-Armendariz, 55, turned himself in to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at their Wichita office on Wednesday. He is now being held at the ICE-contracted Chase County Jail in Cottonwood Falls and could face deportation proceedings.Ceballos is a Mexican national who has held a green card since 1990. He also served two terms as mayor of Coldwater, Kansas, a small conservative town in Comanche County with fewer than 700 residents. He was first elected in 2021 and then won re-election in 2025 with 83% of the vote.
The legal trouble became public the day after that re-election, when Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach announced felony election fraud charges. Court records show that Ceballos voted in multiple elections even though he knew he was not a U.S. citizen. Records also say he admitted during a January citizenship application that he had falsely claimed U.S. citizenship.
In April, Ceballos pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of disorderly election conduct. The plea deal brought a $2,000 fine and one year of probation, but no jail time. He has said he believed his green card allowed him to vote and that he felt “misled” by the plea agreement.
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