A small town mayor who voted for President Donald Trump in the last three elections is facing deportation after being accused of committing a felony, a new report revealed.
Joe Ceballos, who was recently elected mayor of Coldwater, Kansas, by a margin of 101 to 20, has been charged with six felonies for allegedly voting illegally in U.S. elections. He faces three counts of election perjury and three counts of voting without being qualified, The New York Times reported.
The charges stunned the small town of roughly 700 people, many of whom consider Ceballos to be a member of the community. They have called for the Trump administration to stop prosecuting Ceballos, even though some of the president's allies appear to support deporting the mayor.
“Nobody ever told me that I couldn’t vote or register to vote,” Ceballos told the Times. “And so, as a young man, yeah, I did it. I registered.”
Ceballos, 55, has lived in the U.S. since 1990, when he received his green card. He has worked at the local public works department as a lineman, and hosts a mud run for trucks on his sprawling property just outside of the city limits.
Ceballos said he agrees with many of the things Trump is trying to accomplish in office, like reducing illegal immigration and cracking down on crime, even though that has apparently landed a target on his back. The Trump administration amplified the case against Ceballos last December, and he currently worries that Trump's immigration forces will come to his home and arrest him.
“You wake up, like, ‘Are they going to deport me now?’” he said. “It’s always in your thoughts.”