Colombian National Sentenced to 3 Years for Identity Theft, Voting in Elections

The man pleaded guilty to making a false claim to U.S. citizenship, and he voted in several elections.

The badge of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Hawthorne, Calif., on March 1, 2020. Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

A Colombian national received a three-year prison sentence Aug. 12 for identity theft and voting in U.S. elections.

Carlos Felipe Jaramillo-Grajales, who was living in Jacksonville, Florida, pleaded guilty in May to making false statements in the process of applying for a U.S. passport, aggravated identity theft, falsely claiming a Social Security number, and making a false claim to U.S. citizenship, according to a statement at the time from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Florida. [delete]

The case arose out of an investigation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Jaramillo-Grajales, 55, entered the country illegally at an unknown date and location, and used another man’s identity for over two decades, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in an Aug. 14 statement. [delete]

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, in 2003 Jaramillo-Grajales used the name, date of birth, and Social Security number of a U.S. citizen to apply for and obtain a passport.

He then used the same information to claim U.S. citizenship, apply for and obtain a Florida driver’s license, as well as register to vote. He voted in several elections, including the 2020 general election.

Under his false name, Jaramillo-Grajales married a woman who came to the United States in September 2003 on a visitor’s visa, the DHS statement said. The marriage let her apply for naturalization because she was purportedly married to a U.S. citizen.

She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in August 2017, and they divorced in January 2020, the DHS said. In 2024, he returned to Colombia under the false name. His ex-wife flew to Colombia and filed an application for a fiancé visa for him under his real name. Once the visa was approved, Jaramillo-Grajales returned to the United States under his real name, remarried his ex-wife in June 2025, and applied for permanent residence based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen.

“Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of HSI, along with our federal partners, this criminal is out of our communities and, at the end of his sentence, will be removed from our country,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said.

In July, authorities arrested Marian Charitun, a resident alien from Slovakia who had allegedly voted illegally in the 2022 election in New Jersey, according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey.

That same month, ICE charged Denise Nataly Migliore, a lawful permanent resident from Australia, with allegedly making false claims of U.S. citizenship and illegally voting in the 2022 and 2024 elections in Louisiana.

In May, DHS and the Department of Justice announced charges against four noncitizens in New Jersey who allegedly voted illegally in federal elections and made false statements while applying for U.S. citizenship.

In April, Jose Ceballos, an alien from Mexico, pleaded guilty to three counts of disorderly election conduct after illegally voting multiple times and falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen in Kansas, where he had served as mayor of Coldwater.

In March, ICE arrested Mahady Sacko, a criminal illegal immigrant from Mauritania who allegedly had been illegally voting in the United States since 2008.

DHS has taken other steps to eliminate illegal voting in recent months.

In July, Mullin sent letters to secretaries of state in several states warning that tens of thousands of noncitizens are registered to vote. That same month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said grant recipients will be required to take several key actions on election integrity.

In June, DHS directed ICE to enforce stricter penalties for noncitizens who illegally vote in American elections, including deportation.