One stolen identity allowed Carlos Felipe Jaramillo Grajales to obtain a Florida driver’s license, secure a U.S. passport, register to vote, cast ballots in several elections, and help his wife become an American citizen.
It lasted more than 20 years.
U.S. District Judge Harvey E. Schlesinger sentenced Jaramillo Grajales, a 55-year-old illegal alien living in Jacksonville, to three years in federal prison Wednesday. He had pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, lying on a passport application, falsely claiming a Social Security number, and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to vote. Schlesinger also ordered his removal to Colombia after he finishes the sentence.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) doesn’t know when or where Jaramillo Grajales entered the country illegally. It does know that Florida put him on the voter rolls in December 2010 after he claimed to be an American born in Puerto Rico. He voted in several elections, including the November 3, 2020, general election in Duval County. The Department of Justice (DOJ) hasn’t identified the others.
DHS posted his photograph Friday and issued a press release.
This illegal alien fraudster has been SENTENCED to jail after he stole an American citizen’s identity and VOTED in elections.
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) August 14, 2026
Carlos Felipe Jaramillo Grajales, from Colombia, used the name, date of birth, and Social Security number to claim citizenship, obtain a driver’s… https://t.co/k5VkMkhOOa pic.twitter.com/G7DcD1Znwb
This illegal alien fraudster has been SENTENCED to jail after he stole an American citizen’s identity and VOTED in elections.
Carlos Felipe Jaramillo Grajales, from Colombia, used the name, date of birth, and Social Security number to claim citizenship, obtain a driver’s license, and vote. Thanks to the men and women of @HSI_HQ, he will be REMOVED from our country at the end of his sentence.
We will always fight to protect the integrity of our elections, because only Americans should be electing American leaders.
DHS also issued a press release on the matter, in which DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the sentence would be followed by removal:
"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 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."
The false identity had been in use since at least March 2003. Jaramillo Grajales took an American citizen's name, birthdate, and Social Security number and used them to obtain a Florida driver's license, then a passport the following month using that license and a Puerto Rican birth certificate bearing the victim's name. The State Department issued it in May 2003. He renewed it in 2013 and again in March 2023, and Florida renewed the driver's license several times, most recently in February 2024, without catching anything.
No federal statement identifies the American whose records he used for more than two decades. That person's name, birthdate, and Social Security number were used to obtain a passport, a driver's license, and a voter registration, and the government hasn't said what, if anything, has been done to notify or protect them.
The stolen identity extended to his wife as well. She entered the United States on a visitor's visa in September 2003, married Jaramillo Grajales, and applied for permanent residence as the wife of a supposed American citizen. The government approved that too, and eventually her citizenship. She naturalized in August 2017. They divorced in January 2020.
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He flew to Colombia under the stolen name in May 2024. His ex-wife followed the next month.
She filed a K-1 fiancé visa application for him there, only this time under his real name. She had become an American citizen through her marriage to his fake American identity, and now she was asking the government to admit him as a Colombian fiancé. That application was approved too. Jaramillo Grajales returned under his real identity, remarried her in June 2025, and applied for permanent residence.
His real name on the K-1 paperwork exposed the fraud. By then, his U.S. passport had been renewed just one year earlier, and his Florida driver's license only months before the trip to Colombia. Neither renewal caught the stolen identity. The ex-wife's visa filing did.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) took the case from there, working with the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service and the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Arnold B. Corsmeier prosecuted it.
HSI Jacksonville Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tim Hemker said the conviction sent a clear message.
“This criminal illegal alien spent years exploiting a stolen identity of a United States citizen to obtain government documents, claim benefits, and unlawfully participate in the electoral process. This conviction demonstrates that identity theft, immigration fraud, and fraud against the integrity of United States government systems will be investigated thoroughly and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
DHS tied the prosecution to the Trump administration’s 2026 crackdown on noncitizen voting. The agency listed five other enforcement actions from this year: arrests involving voting in New Jersey and Louisiana; charges against four noncitizens in New Jersey; a guilty plea in Kansas; and the arrest of a Mauritanian illegal alien accused of voting in seven federal elections since 2008.
As noted, Jaramillo Grajales will be returned to Colombia when his prison term ends. The government still hasn't said how many American elections he voted in. It took a fiancé visa, not a single government vetting system, to catch him.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left's lies, new legislation wasn't needed to secure our border, just a new president.
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