An illegal alien was sentenced this week after voting in United States elections by falsely claiming naturalized American citizenship, Department of Justice (DOJ) officials said on Friday.
Carlos Felipe Jaramillo-Grajales, a 55-year-old illegal alien from Colombia, was sentenced to three years in federal prison for making false statements in an application for a U.S. passport, aggravated identity theft, falsely claiming that a Social Security number was his, and falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen to vote in an election.
Likewise, Jaramillo-Grajales was given a deportation order, requiring federal immigration officials to deport him once he has completed his sentence.
“Federal immigration laws serve to safeguard our nation’s borders and protect the integrity of our government,” U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe said. “Those who seek to circumvent, exploit, or break these laws will be prosecuted fully.”
According to prosecutors, Jaramillo-Grajales stole the Social Security Number of an American citizen so that he could secure an American passport. The illegal alien used the same Social Security Number to claim American citizenship while obtaining a Florida driver’s license, giving him the ability to register to vote.
Jaramillo-Grajales went on to vote in the 2020 election and several other elections.
“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,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin said:
Because of his fraud, he was able to obtain a driver’s license and vote in our elections. Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of [Homeland Security Investigations], 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 will always fight to protect the integrity of our elections, because election security is national security. Only Americans should be electing American leaders.
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Prosecutors said that Jaramillo-Grajales, using the stolen Social Security number, married a foreign national who arrived in the U.S. in September 2003 on a B visitor visa. The woman eventually secured naturalized American citizenship in August 2017 before divorcing the illegal alien in January 2020.
Following his divorce, Jaramillo-Grajales left the U.S. for Colombia using his stolen Social Security number while his ex-wife left for Colombia and applied to secure a fiancé visa for him under his real name.
The fiancé visa was approved for Jaramillo-Grajales, allowing him to fly back to the U.S. under his real name, where he remarried his ex-wife in June 2025 before applying for a green card.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected].
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