ICE Investigation Leads to Jailing of Illegal Voter from Colombia
A Colombian national who illegally entered the U.S. was sentenced to three years in prison for fraudulently voting in American elections for over two decades using stolen identity documents.
Carlos Felipe Jaramillo-Grajales used stolen identity documents beginning in 2003 to obtain a driver’s license and subsequently a U.S. passport, which he then leveraged to claim citizenship and cast ballots in multiple elections, including the 2020 general election.
Federal investigators from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, working alongside other agencies, uncovered the elaborate fraud scheme that allowed Jaramillo-Grajales to masquerade as an American citizen for more than 20 years.
The Department of Justice stated that the Colombian citizen appropriated the name, date of birth, and Social Security number of an actual U.S. citizen to secure his fraudulent passport. He deployed these same stolen credentials to obtain a Florida driver’s license and register to vote, subsequently casting ballots in several elections.
Court records show that Jaramillo-Grajales first acquired his Florida driver’s license in March 2003 by fraudulently assuming a U.S. citizen’s identity. Two months later, in May 2003, he used that license to obtain a U.S. passport and register as a voter. Over the following years, he successfully renewed both documents multiple times, with his most recent driver’s license renewal occurring in February 2024 and passport renewals in 2013 and 2023.
In December 2010, the illegal immigrant submitted a Florida Voter Registration Application in which he identified himself as the stolen identity and falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico, according to the Justice Department. Election officials approved the registration, enabling him to vote in numerous elections, including the November 3, 2020 election in Duval County.
The investigation also exposed an additional immigration fraud scheme involving Jaramillo-Grajales’s wife. While living illegally in the country under his false identity, he exploited U.S. immigration policies to secure citizenship for a woman he married. He then manipulated her newly acquired citizenship status to obtain legal U.S. citizenship under his real name through an elaborate divorce-and-remarriage scheme spanning several years.
Under his stolen identity, Jaramillo-Grajales married a woman who arrived in the United States in September 2003 on a visitor’s visa. Her marriage to a purported U.S. citizen allowed her to apply for naturalization, which she obtained in August 2017. The couple divorced in January 2020, after which he returned to Colombia using his false identity.
His ex-wife then traveled to Colombia and filed a fiancé visa application for him under his actual name. Once approved, Jaramillo-Grajales flew back to the United States under his real identity, remarried his ex-wife in June 2025, and applied for permanent residence based on marriage to a U.S. citizen, according to DHS.
The defendant pleaded guilty to four felony charges: making false statements in a U.S. passport application, aggravated identity theft, falsely claiming that a Social Security number had been assigned to him, and falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen to vote in an election.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin emphasized the severity of the crimes. This criminal illegal alien from Colombia has just been sentenced to three years in a federal prison for identity theft and falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen, Mullin stated, adding that the convicted felon will be removed from the country upon completing his sentence.
The Secretary praised the work of HSI agents and federal partners in removing the criminal from American communities, declaring that election security is national security and that only Americans should elect American leaders.
With information from Washington Examiner
